human – PORTRAITS IN DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY
Set for publication in 2024, the book is a photographic study with extended captions that looks at various topics dealing with human conditions such as loneliness, isolation, self-love, and mental health in the community. Here’s a teaser…
Intensity
A. “I use it to unwind, switch off. I go through a sort of ritual, these are my game socks, when I put them on, I’m in the zone”.
The anxieties we all experience in life are relative to the individual and normally unseen. Game consoles allow users to escape and communicate during online multiplayer games. Gamers use this facility to talk on a number of subjects…
Q. So how many hours do you devote to gaming on an average week?
A. “Not that much, I have a girlfriend, and a dog that needs walking several times a day, and a full-time job, so I spend about 3 evenings a week on it and about 6 hours at the weekend. About 16 hours in all I think. That is unless a new game has just come out. I’ve taken a week off work before to play ‘Call of Duty’ when it first came out, but that was when I was younger and didn’t have the dog, I don’t think I’d do that now.”
Q. What is your job?
A. “I work for a builder in London, I suppose, I’m kind-a like-a PA, but only for his business. I make sure everyone in the office has what they need to do their work, that he gets to, and is where he’s supposed to be, and sometimes attend meetings for him. So, it’s not purely office based and I have to think on my feet a lot.”
Q. What do you talk about when you use the headset, do you always play with the same team?
A. “No, it depends on who’s online at the time. Sometimes a group of us make plans to be online at a set time, but often that changes, or someone drops out. When you’re in a relationship, your time’s not always your own. Or, if the dog needs walking, it’s easier, cleaner, and quicker to take him for a walk, if he needs to go.”
Q. What do you talk about online?
A. “Everything and nothing. Often it’s about the mission we’re on; sometimes, if it’s someone I’ve spoken with before, or there’s just a couple of us, we’ll talk about things that might be bothering us.”
Q. What; personal things?
A. “Sometimes.”
Nathan seems a bit uneasy, maybe I have touched a nerve, pressed him too hard on the point, so I end the interview. Then, once the recording stops, he tells me. One of his friends who he regularly kept in contact with online went missing for a few days, which was unlike him. Finally, he was found. He had hung himself from a tree; he was there for two days. No one picked up the signs. Sometimes, online friends are not enough.
According to figures released by the organization ‘Samaritans’, “In 2014, 6,122 suicides were registered in the UK. This corresponds to a suicide rate of 10.8 per 100,000 people (16.8 per 100,000 for men and 5.2 per 100,000 for women).” A study by BMJ (British Medical Journal) concluded that factors associated with an increased risk of suicide in young people were; unemployment, low income, poor schooling, and divorce, as well as mental illness in siblings. The strongest risk factor was mental illness and a family history of suicide.
geraldmclean
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