Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real. 

Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses

For the last 13 years, I have suffered from chronic vestibular migraines that affect both my vision and my balance. During that time I have kept a diary that records my headaches using a numerical rating scale of pain (0-10) along with any possible triggers: weather changes, food or drink consumed and any other environmental disturbances as any of these can be triggers for a migraine attack.

Harmony in My Head is a visual interpretation of 31 days in January 2021 from my diary. I have used a cameraless, chemigram process, where black and white photographic paper is exposed to daylight and then “resists” that block both the light and the chemical developing process are applied to the paper. These resists are made with any significant food or drink consumed that day. The photo paper is decades out of date and has absorbed its own environmental conditions such as damp and leaking light that have left its own marks on the paper’s surface. I have added additional elements such as ice, rain, sunlight and medication taken to the paper, so the final works become an analogue representation of all that happened that day.

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Key


PS = Pain Score

VD = Visual disturbance

Possible triggers

W = Weather

F =Food eaten 

D = Drinks consumed
M = Medications

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