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.
Ever since I started this project, I’ve grappled with the idea of including myself as a participant.
I decided to go ahead and do so for two reasons:
I needed to make myself vulnerable to this process so that I could understand what the people who are sharing their stories with me might be feeling in these moments.
My experiences with nearly a decade of using self-injury as a maladaptive coping mechanism, an emotionally and physically abusive lesbian relationship which resulted in my suicide attempt, and the struggles of living day-to-day with Bipolar Disorder (which I’ve chosen not to medicate) have made me feel pretty strongly that my story needs to be shared, too.
Text excerpted from an interview with Cara Anna (full text here). Photo by Katie Marks.
The decisions I made that night shaped every day of my life after it. I had to make the decision to live. I had to make the decision to stop cutting myself. I had to make the decision to physically remove myself from the situation. I had to make the decision to stop being a victim, to stop being a person I knew I wasn’t (and was terrified I’d become).
I needed something, and I guess it was to know that I wasn’t alone, that these things happen, that there are cycles of abuse and they’re fucking HARD to break.
Domestic abuse is as easily stigmatized as self-injury and suicide. My story, I guess, is like a triple whammy. Maybe even a quadruple whammy, because it was domestic abuse in a lesbian relationship, which isn’t something that seems to ever be addressed.
It needs to be explored because it happens, and I’m sick of these things being swept under the rug.
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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 share a link everywhere you see fit. The more eyes that see this, the better. I get the most inquiries about participation from shared links, for what it’s worth.
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.
