This series is inspired by “Lene Marie Fossen [who] was an autodidact Norwegian photographer. “She rejected the linear progression of time that forced her to go through puberty and stopped eating at the tender age of 10. She struggled with anorexia for the rest of her life. Fossen chose to be open about her disease and found her means of expression in photography” (Shoot Gallery). Her imagery was incredibly powerful and, after watching a documentary about her life, I wanted to tell her story using my imagery.

 

 

As a young girl, Lene decided she never wanted to age and grow old. She found that restricting her diet stopped timed and helped her stay in her young body. Having never gone through puberty, she kept her child-like voice and never had her period or breasts.

Lene described feeling trapped, as if in a jail cell, when living at home. She had lived her whole life with her mother, and said she only truly came alive and “saw the real Lene” when she traveled the world and worked on her photography.

One of Lene’s works was focused on taking portraits of refugee children in Greece. She described her love for portraiture and said that a face was the best way to describe someone and see everything they had been through.

 

At the beginning of the documentary, Lene says that she does not want to die and that she wants to fight to keep herself alive. However, as the documentary progresses, we see her loose her will to fight and we can see her digress. She is shown in her hospital bed, withered to almost nothing.