Jennifer Charlton, Jeff , First Edition 1/10, Hahnemuhle Pho...

Estimate

£250 - £300

Jennifer Charlton, Jeff , First Edition 1/10, Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Pearl 320GSM, framed, 56.5cm x 46cm overall, part of her mental health project ‘A Hidden Community’. This ongoing personal project was also placed in the finals of the prestigious AOP student awards and runner up at the Photo North Student Photography competition and garnered attention from ITV, the BBC and the broadsheets.

Jeff: 'My own struggle with mental health started at a really young age around seven or eight year old. I was bullied a lot until I was fourteen. I had a self-developing worthlessness; all I wanted was to be valued by people.
I left school with zero qualifications, and I didn't realize until my thirties I was dyslexic.
However, even later when I had five different photography businesses that were going well, I still had those self-doubts.
Later I decided to buy a pub and it failed in twelve months. I lost £120,000 investment and I was £60,000 in debt. As that started to fail those first things that people tell you as a child stick in your mind. I tried to take my own life one night. After I closed up the pub I tried to drive my car off a bridge, but I missed.
I had this massive thing hanging over my head that I was a failure and I felt the same as when my teacher told me I'd never amount to anything.
Gradually I began to reprogram my mind. I listen to loads of audiobooks and stopped watching any media. I started practicing gratitude, writing down things that I was grateful for, a person, possession and an experience every single day.
Changing your mindset is about having to overcome these feelings that you have, the way you see yourself and the way others treated you as a kid.
You need to give yourself a good foundation for everything else, because that's still always going to be at the back of your mind.
I've now got a six-figure business but the relationship I have with my daughter is my personal sign of success. We spend a lot of quality time together going to gigs, on our motorbikes or just going for picnics.'