ustxtxb_obs_2007_11_02_50_00027-00000_000.pdf

“Why do people that have mental disorders end up in jail all the time instead of in a hospital? I’ve had several psychotic episodes where I needed help, medical help, and I’d ended up uh, being psychotic in a prison and being beaten. I was raped, and I couldn’t do anything, I could not fight back at the time.” RICHARD asking to be included. He spent four days with each volunteer taking pictures and conducting interviews. For the exhibit, Nye picked one picture of each person and edited the matching recordings down to five minutes at most. The subjects were allowed to see and hear themselves before the exhibit was shown, and few changes were requested. Those who volunteered are uniformly eloquent and as diverse as our society. Many suffer from some mental illness themselves, but others are parents of, or the children of, those with mental illness. Most of the photographs are exquisitely detailed, 16-by-20 inch, neutral toned, black-and-white images on photographic paper. There is more detail than you could normally see with your unaided eyes, because the 8-by-10 negatives are enlarged to only twice their diagonal lengths. As you listen to the technically perfect recording, the flawless editing, your eyes can take in minute details of tone and texture. Seeing is touching from a distance, so the wealth of detail brings you into contact with each person as the clarity of voice fills your hearing through stereo headphones attached to each easel. Exceptions to the print format are two warmly toned, 11by-14 prints of Richard. He looks out calmly from his close-up portraits. He has beautiful, slightly curly, thick brown hair. He explains the physiological basis for bipolar disorder. He asks, “Why are the mentally ill thrown into jails where they may be beaten and raped, as I have been?” NOVEMBER 2, 2007 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 27