I AM MORE: FACING STIGMA

About the Exhibition

Through powerful black and white photography, viewers learn that mental illness is a silent epidemic that touches so many yet we can’t see it the way that we see physical illness. The goal of the exhibit was that someday soon people will feel less alone and able to speak openly about mental illness in the same way that we talk about physical illness. May is Mental Health Awareness Month and this photo exhibit was the first in a series of events and activities all aimed at letting people know that "Hope Happens". Since the Portland opening, the exhibit has become a traveling exhibit to be viewed at libraries, schools, and public spaces. The Yellow Tulip Project envisions an eventual virtual exhibit that schools can include in health curricula when discussing mental illness and stigma.

About the Artists 

The Yellow Tulip Project focuses on smashing the stigma that surrounds mental illness and building a community where people realize there is help and hope out there. When founder Julia Hansen was in middle school and until her sophomore year in high school she definitely felt alone in dealing with her own depression. The deafening silence and stigma that surrounds the topic kept her from reaching out for help. It took the tragedy of losing her two best friends to suicide in 2015-2016 for her to find her voice and to speak out. She had an idea - to create a space for determined youth to eradicate stigma, build community, and inspire productive conversations about how to combat the rising rates of suicide. The Yellow Tulip Project was born from this vision.

Lissy is a full-time freelance photographer specilaizing in portraiture, editorial and documentary photography. She is always up for a new assignment and photographs a wide range of subjects including: dancers, writers, chefs, potters, teachers,arborists, musicians, kids, families and even the occassional pet. Her most recent project, I AM MORE: FACING STIGMA, is a series of twenty two large-scale black and white portraits created for the not for profit organization, the Yellow Tulip Project, in connection with it's mission to eradicate the stigma surrounding people dealing with mental heath challenges.

Prior to working full time as a photographer she also practiced law in Manhattan. She lives in Portland with her husband and three daughters.

Photos by Lissy Thomas