Jenn Ackerman
Jenn
Ackerman is a photographer that I have been inspired by in relation to my Unit
3 project of Mental Illness/ Health. I was greatly influenced by Ackerman’s
series “Trapped” which consists of black and white photographs of mentally ill
prisoners at the, ‘The Kentucky State
Reformatory’ (2008). She captured the inmates’ everyday lives, their living
conditions and the way they react to the harsh realities of prison life. Her
photographs were documents on the subject, increasing awareness of mental
health care in prisons. She wanted to show the weakness, suffering, hostility
and vulnerability of these men she had witnessed after spending a few months in
the State Reformatory documenting these events. The majority of “these men were
outcasts to society and rarely noticed or heard”, exploiting how isolation in
prison isn’t the answer for most people with mental illnesses. Ackerman viewed
a reality that most people on the outside of the Reformatory, in America are
completely oblivious to. The title of her series of photographs reflects how
inmates are “trapped” inside the system with nowhere else to go. Each of her
images tell a different story, and during my Unit 3 photography I would like to
portray a similar idea, exploring mental illness with the use of props and
through research about them.