“Borderline Ocean”
The project aim to describe with a conceptual language the complexity of borderline personality: a condition of psychological suffering, somewhere between neurosis and psychosis, which is often the result of childhood trauma: abuse, abandonment, physical and emotional neglect. A past that is not confined in time, but continues to live in the present, reactivated every day, influencing the way we feel, love, and exist, and casting its shadow on a fragile, inevitably compromised future.
Each shot is imbued with tears and liberation: it is born from multiple true stories, from hours of listening and sharing, from open wounds that still bleed, from memories of an unfortunate past that never fades and inexorably affects the present.
I chose a conceptual, non-reportage-like language for two fundamental reasons: on the one hand, to respect the intimacy and vulnerability of those experiencing suffering; on the other, because I wanted the images to have a universal value, so that anyone experiencing these states of mind can identify with them, and those who support those who suffer can begin to truly see what often remains hidden and must necessarily be listened to, understood, and addressed. These photographs aim to promote greater understanding of mental suffering and its underlying causes, to try to prevent it where possible and to treat what too often remains invisible, repressed, or trivialized.
“Oceano Borderline” aims to champion collective responsibility. It is not enough for institutions to remove children from unsuitable family contexts: it is necessary to care for the wounds, accompany them, and support them over time. Especially in adulthood. Because those who grow up in a fractured state remain fragile and can hardly build full autonomy without ongoing support. Many of these conditions are never even diagnosed.
The presence of the mirror and reflections is intended to emphasize the unstable self-perception and the resulting impaired understanding of reality. The two spheres, black and white, indicate the extremes, the opposites, that coexist within the borderline personality, unable to be integrated by the individual who remains crushed by them. Even in relationships, unable to integrate good and bad, the individual oscillates between idealization and devaluation and/or persecutory feelings (paranoia), with serious repercussions on interpersonal relationships.
The subject is suspended between two realities: the external world and the internal one.
Reality is not denied, but translated, transformed by a defense system born of pain. The reflection of a swallow in flight becomes a desire for escape; a long-awaited freedom, but also an illusion: escape cannot happen, and the subject remains trapped within his own pain, confined in the corner of an abyss from which he cannot escape.
The technical and color choices used aim to create an atmosphere of isolation and solitude, with a strong sense of judgment and external observation. The use of neutral colors and minimalist compositions aims to convey a sense of apparent calm, which contrasts with the internal emotional turmoil typical of borderline personality disorder.
