Playfully unmasking neurodivergent identity through collage and photography.
In 2023 when I was recovering from my second episode of Long Covid, in the midst of a prolonged house move and whilst I had little use of my right arm due to a couple of falls where I managed a complete tear of my shoulder cuff with a lot of nerve damage, I got invited to do this project by Sonia Boué. Evolving from Sonia’s lockdown project Neurophototherapy, myself and others were invited as a focus group to beta test the wonderful methodology Sonia created for playfully unmasking as an autistic adult late-diagnosed.
For me it was a timely, profound and fun process. I discovered so much and, through asking my dad for old pictures of me ‘having fun’, reignited memories of childhood and found new ways to connect with my parents from this. For some reason (the cog fog decision fatigue of LC and CFS combined with major Neurosparkliness I guess), I never stuck down any of the images I made, something about committing to the decision I think. I had lots of fun, learnt and rediscovered a lot of myself and connected with other ND adults and their own creations.
The end result of the project was an innovative self-help book, Neurophototherapy: Playfully Unmasking with Photography and Collage which you can download for free from the Autograph.org.uk site (thanks to Arts Council funding!).
There’s also a gallery there featuring images created by all the participants in the project.
More about Neurophototherapy on Sonia Boué’s website.
Thanks to Sonia for inviting me to be part of the project (her instagram is also great!).
