Photographer revisits problems faced by mentally ill, prepares new show
Photographer revisits subjects, prepares new book and exhibition
Seven years ago, photographer Dustin Shum Wan-yat set out to demystify mental illness with a series of pictures of mentally ill people.
Today, Shum has returned to meet and photograph some of his subjects again. He learned that they continue to face the same ostracisation and struggle to be accepted - though some have had their lives change in unexpected ways.
"I've never hurt anyone, so I'm not ashamed … I'm just sick, not ashamed," said Fong Kam-ho as she fiddled with a juice packet, looking uncomfortable.
Clinical depression set in when her unborn baby died in 1999, and she was diagnosed in 2003. Now 51, she has since moved into public housing and attempted to build a new life, but has not told her neighbours about her condition because "I don't want them to become hostile or scared of me".
Kam's story is one of 11 featured in a new exhibition and book of photography by Shum. But while some of his subjects are the same people he met seven years ago, his new book has a different mindset to the original: it demonstrates how mental illness has become entrenched in the community, and how we all need to live with it.
"These are no longer other people's stories. It's within normal daily life now," Shum said.
The subjects are photographed in their daily living environment: a park, a bedroom, looking out of a window.
"They could be anyone, anywhere," Shum said.
Another of the subjects, Hui Ping-moon, was finally able to shake his depression only after an experience that for most people would be unbearably grim.
"I was given six months [to live], yet I'm still here six years later! I think I've got more than I expected," he said, softly and with difficulty because cancer has destroyed his tongue, but also with a big smile on his face. "I want to continue to live now."
Hui speaks of being stared at, snickered at and ostracised for his gaunt appearance, most noticeably his hollow cheeks and lack of teeth and a voice.
But he finds joy in listening to music and he continues to hold on to life and encourage others. "If you are sick, don't give up and don't give up on finding a cure," he said.
Shum, who remained in touch with many of the subjects he photographed, said better support was needed for patients recovering from and fighting mental illness.
He urged the government to do everything it could to help them reintegrate into society - as little has been done in the past seven years.
"Policies dealing with mental illness patients should start out of sympathy and compassion, not for easy management or solely administrative reasons," he said.
"I've learned a lot from them. If I were them [fighting those illnesses], I hope I could be like them," he said.
The photography exhibition, "Life and Times", runs at the Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui from October 4 to 6.
