Lauren McDonald

BA New Media

Artist Website: lmcdonaldphotography.com

ARTIST STATEMENT: Exposure Therapy is a series of photographs recording my personal struggles with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and my efforts to overcome it. As the subject of this series, I intentionally expose myself to my OCD triggers and work to ignore my obsessive thoughts and resist performing compulsive behaviors while learning to tolerate my feelings of extreme anxiety and discomfort. The inspiration for this body of work comes from a type of Cognitive-Behavior Therapy called Exposure and Response Prevention, a common treatment method for OCD. Each image in the series is a digital construction of two or more separate images, resulting in chaotic and disjointed compositions. The goal of these fragmented compositions is to reflect the severe anxiety and discomfort I experienced while confronting my OCD. The purpose of this photo series is to help people to better understand the negative effects OCD can have on one’s quality of life as well as show how much determination and strength it takes for someone to overcome it.