STATES
Dorota Franková
On the one hand, it's a documentary set that captures six months of life in two psychiatric clinics on a cheap cell phone. The beginnings of my stay are shrouded in fog – only fragments of blurry images in my head. Through the photographs, I try to understand my STATUS and re-member encounters with people with whom I share a similar fate. I remember forming friendships in isolation, a strange and magical togetherness. The image of a heart that glowed in the distance outside the morgue. And the return to reality.
On the other hand, these are stylized self-portraits that serve as a valve in my struggle with my STATES. They offer a glimpse into my crazy world full of color, expressiveness, experience and emptiness, joy and sadness. I feel that I can at least for a while encapsulate the manifestations of my illness in photographs and gain a momentary peace. But then I have to start again. And again. And that's why I take pictures – in fact, that's why I take pictures.
Dorota Franková is a Czech photographer finishing her studies of photography at the Libuše Jarcovjáková’s studio at the Faculty of Design and Art Ladislav Sutnar in Pilsen. She is engaged in various professions such as social worker in nursing home. In 2022, she devoted a photographic series in a hospice, where she encountered the passing of people to the other side. Here she interviewed dying people and documented their last moments. She has also been working on a documentary about her ailing grandmother for several years. She enjoys fashion photography and loves collaborating with musicians on their album booklets. A core part of her work is self-reflection and understanding emotional states and their reflection in photography.