A suicide attempt is made once every minute in the United States; a suicide is completed once every 15 to 18 minutes. The annual suicide rate is higher than the mortality rates from homicide, AIDS, and most forms of cancer.
Live Through This is a project about life on the other side of a suicide attempt.
Through the presentation of portraits of suicide attempt survivors and the stories they share, the mission of Live Through This is as follows:
· present suicide as the complex, multi-dimensional issue it is;
· reduce stigma and break down stereotypes associated with suicide and who considers/attempts it by showing the viewer the faces of those who have lived through the experience and gone on to lead successful, fulfilling lives;
· increase awareness of suicide as a pervasive social issue that no one is immune to;
· promote suicide prevention education;
· encourage dialogue about suicide, especially if a loved one is potentially at-risk;
· reduce the fear and taboo of "suicide" as a dirty word.
I believe I can begin to achieve these goals by embracing individuals who have come out from behind their veil of shame to tell me--and the world--who they are now and who they were, where and how they got there, and what brought them to a place in time where they relish their ability to continue living. In sharing their journeys of struggle and survival, we can begin to honor, respect, and educate in an open and accepting forum. The hope is that our voices will strengthen and compel those in need (self, family, friends, co-workers) to get the help they require.
Ideally, the work will culminate in gallery exhibitions, as well as in book format.
I am currently seeking the help of individuals who have attempted suicide, and who are willing to both share their story with me and sit for a portrait. If this catches your fancy, please contact us. Tell us your age (21+ ONLY, please), location, and as much as you're comfortable with sharing about your past experience with suicide, as well as what your life looks like now. Please be willing to sign a model release.
It should be noted that this is a long-term project, and thus, it may take some effort to coordinate meeting/shooting sessions, especially if you are located outside of the immediate New York City area. Your patience is greatly appreciated.
My name is Dese'Rae L. Stage. I am a photographer who makes pictures of people who make life worth living. Executed in bold color and high contrast, the majority of my work centers on musicians and the live show experience. My images address music as emotional catharsis and, in many cases, isolate the artist as a singular, untouchable figure. I am self-taught.
In December 2005, I completed my Bachelor of Science in Psychology at East Tennessee State University, where I helped to co-author a comprehensive self-injury self-report (SISR) measure as a part of my undergraduate studies. I also participated in developing studies looking at the influence of stigma on interpersonal relationships of self-injurers; the effects of knowledge and conservatism on the stigma of self-injury; suicidality and responses to attempters; and the relationships between intimate violence, self-esteem, sexual orientation, and gender. I am trained in crisis intervention, including time served in 2005 as a hotline counselor and rape care companion at the Crisis Center in Bristol, VA. I have participated in LivingWorks’s Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) and am a certified QPR Gatekeeper.
I am a survivor of nine years of self-injury and a suicide attempt catalyzed by an emotionally and physically abusive lesbian relationship. I was diagnosed with Bipolar II Disorder in 2004, but have regulated fluctuations in mood without medication and have been functioning at a high level since 2006.
I live in New York City with my wife, Katie, and our menagerie of pets with people names. You can see more of my work at deseraestage.com
If you feel you are in crisis, don't hesitate to ask for help. Talk to a friend or family member, or call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 and remain 100% anonymous.
Nicole Keimer is the first person I interviewed and photographed for Live Through This. Since our shoot, I’ve changed my interview format and my shooting technique, which accounts for why her portrait is stylistically so different from the rest. The project evolves with every new story.
Nicole has been an active member of the suicide prevention community for years and spends quite a bit of her time working with PostSecret. As a result of being bullied about her weight, she developed and struggled with multiple eating disorders from adolescence through her early twenties. Below, she discusses how these struggles led her to consider suicide as an option.
When you have a problem with food, you can’t just stop eating and cut food out of your life. So there was a time period where I thought, ‘I’m never going to get out of this. Every day is just going to be getting up and thinking about food.’ There was a time where I was literally spending 16 hours of my 24 hour day thinking about food: how I could cut calories, how I could just get down to as little as I could.
‘How am I going to get to a place where I can stop thinking about food?’
I just thought that was never going to happen, because you have to think about food every day. Once I started to feel like I was stuck in this for years, that’s when the suicidal thoughts started to happen. It was, ‘The only way to actually stop thinking about food is to kill myself because otherwise I’m going to have to think about food every single day.’
It was a comfort when I went to bed each night knowing, ‘Well, I could kill myself. You don’t have to do this forever. There’s always an opportunity. This is a possibility; this is an out.’ I think a large part of just knowing that I had that possibility was enough sometimes…
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If you would like to participate in Live Through This, please contact me.
If you’re sympathetic to the cause, please tweet about it, or post a link on Facebook or G+, and ask your friends to re-post it. The more eyes that see this, the better. I get quite a few inquiries about participation from shared links, as well.
If you would like to help fund the project, click here.
If you want to follow LTT on Twitter, you can do that here.
If you want to buy a LTT logo t-shirt, you can do that here. We currently only have 1 S, 2 L, and 1 XL left in stock.
