For this year's First Fortnight festival, a collection of artists and individuals connected to First Fortnight and the wider arts community sat with photographer and creator Emily Quinn for a portrait shoot and discussed what they do to support their mental health.
The resulting exhibition of smiling faces and stories of how we mind our mental health is a reminder that joy can exist alongside the tough conversations, that we can share hope of better days ahead, and that community is one of our most powerful assets.
Emily introduces her project Where's Your Head At? below.
I really work hard now on my mental health... I prioritise it, it’s become a very important part of my day-to consider it. Every day without fail I walk with my golden Retriever for an hour... Gives me time to reflect, plan, consider. Great for the dog too she’s always happy after it as we walk along the Dodder river. The surroundings give me a sense of peace and serenity.
I've start to run again with a running club, and I adore that.. love the sense of community. Keeping alcohol to a minimum, can’t deal with any excess anxiety. I’m also very lucky to be surrounded by a wonderful loving and fun family. My pals are ace too! we still love each other’s company after all these years.
So, I have loved this project, I love that people come for a portrait session and we end up talking about all kinds of beautifully emotionally filled topics, some of them private and some so honest that they put these words to add to the images for the exhibition.
But I have also found it difficult if I am being honest too, there feels like a heavy weight in the world at the moment and I feel everyone who sat before me felt it too... We are worried about our hostile world, the planet, homelessness and this carried into our private lives too, which translates into the images...
But at the end of each session, I always felt we left with warmth and hope, and that is so very beautiful! I love that each sitter brought an honesty and rawness to the frames we shot and it really felt like an honour to capture this project in this frail yet hopeful world!
But mostly people looked after their mental health, and knew how to keep it healthy, and for this exhibition even if one person who comes to visit and it helps with their own mental health well then, our work here is done : )
Where’s Your Head At? runs from January 5th - Tuesday January 14th 2025 at The Hunt Museum, Limerick - find out more here, and take a deeper dive into this year's First Fortnight programme here.
