Project II: Different, Not Less

Study: Migraines

May 18, 2017. Left, frontal lobe. “Feels like my brain is swirling inward inside my head, like a toilet flushing.”

July 31, 2017. Right, frontal lobe. “My brain feels like cold bathroom tile, and someone keeps scrubbing it. They won’t stop.”

February 14, 2018. Right, frontal lobe. “Feels like someone keeps pulling me back by the hair. They keep pulling harder and harder.”

September 7, 2019. Frontal Lobe. “It’s like someone punched me in the head, and the pain is traveling in slow motion.”

October 9, 2019. Right, frontal lobe. “Feels like my brain is fighting to get out of its skull. The pain is sharp, like my brain is using a knife to escape.”

Last semester, I did a project on Migraines for my Intro to Photography class. I looked into the sensitivity of light, displaying various unique angles that play with natural light to show a harsh contrast between light and dark. For this project, I wanted to dive deeper into migraines and just how different each and every one is. Oliver Sacks’ book “Migraines” pushes that point even further; migraines go beyond a “big headache” and they are unique to every individual.

As a migraine sufferer for almost eight years, I have documented every time I got a migraine in a journal. I did this not only for medical reasons to better communicate my symptoms with my doctor, but also to see if maybe I can notice a pattern of behavior in episodes. It’s continues to be something I study, for I have not found a pattern yet. I selected a couple photos of me experiencing some of my favorite memories, ones of which I experienced a migraine. Each image is designed in a unique way that represents how my head felt during the migraine episode, as well as the area in which the migraine was present.