"Up in the Air"
A collaborative project between paper-artist / set designer Annemarieke Kloosterhof & photographer Nick Dunne, reflecting on quarantine-anxiety and mental health.
“Up in the Air”
These are uncertain times.
Quarantine, social distancing and the fear of losing loved ones or your financial stability means that we are more stressed, desperate and anxious than ever. No wonder that so many people are struggling with Mental Health problems right now!
Though the weekly-clap for the NHS is moving, the bus stop posters of “Be kind to one another” are heart-warming, and the social media pictures of your friend’s lockdown achievements are inspiring… everything can feel a bit overwhelming right now.
But guess what – that is fine!!
Kindness to one another in these uncertain times is of course very important… but we mustn’t forget to be kind to ourselves too.
Our mental health & wellbeing should be paramount, and so we should all allow ourselves to practice a bit more Self-care and to collectively take the pressure off a bit.
It’s ok to not know what the future holds. It’s OK to feel lost, uncertain, depressed, anxious or lonely right now. It's OK to not know where you’ll be in a year’s time, or a week, or even a day… It's OK! You know why? Because no one else knows either.
Everything is (literally) up in the air right now, and your guess as to how this all pans out, is as good as mine. The dice have been cast, and we won’t know how they’ll land until they do.... We just have to roll with it and take it day by day.
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Credits:
Concept + Art Direction by: Annemarieke Kloosterhof @annemarieke.kloosterhof
Photography by: Nick Dunne @nick.dunne
Retouching by: @pinkstudious
For Mental Health Awareness week
This project was made during Lockdown, in London, upholding the social distancing rules.
Annemarieke drew up a digital mockup and made the Paper-craft prop dice from her studio, the dice were collected by bike, and Nick photographed them in his studio, all whilst we communicated the styling each remotely from our individual studios.
After lots and lots of messages back and forth (“up a bit, left a bit, down a bit.. no that’s too much now, back a bit...”) we managed to get the perfect shot.
“Up in the Air” is a conceptual image representing the anxiety people currently experience in quarantine, and the questions about the future - both the positive (orange) and negative (blue) - this brings with it... We hope you like it.
By Annemarieke Kloosterhof : www.annemariekekloosterhof.com
And Nick Dunne : www.nickdunne.com
