Photography Student Took Haunting Self-Portraits After Being Admitted To A Psychiatric Hospital

Laura Hospes is a 21-year-old Dutch Photography student, she is also a sufferer of depression and anxiety.

Hospes was recently admitted to the psychiatric ward of a hospital after a suicide attempt, but she decided to document it all via her art, through the medium of photography.

This body of photos is called UCP-UMCG - named after the hospital she is staying in. The purpose of the images is to explore what happens behind closed doors.

"My project resulted in a very extensive selection of photos about a girl, me, who is on the verge of death. The emotions that I experienced in hospital were very overwhelming and intense and I hope you can see and feel that in my photos." She told TheLadBible 

This series won Laura a spot on LensCulture’s list of 50 best emerging photographers for 2015 in the LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards.

"To begin with I made this project only for myself and my need to express myself. But after sharing them I discovered I also felt a little rebellion about the fact that many people show only the perfect things in their life on Facebook or other social media. I want to show that difficult stories are also “allowed” and they can inspire people. I hope they also gain love and support back and feel less lonely again. The last thing I want to tell is that I am not crazy. Nobody who ends up in hospital is crazy."

You can check out her website here.