Aidan Ali - True Trauma Within

VET in SACE Student Aidan Ali shares their process and inspiration behind their photo series - True Trauma Within.

These images shown to you now, are a series of photos I created called the True Trauma

Within. These photos are a journey of a person’s struggle through their trauma of being

kidnapped. This is not a personal thing I have gone through, I don’t know anyone who has been

kidnapped, I just found it interesting to shoot this idea. What you see are images that

incorporate elements beyond the print to create this 3-dimensional surrealism. These images

have been tied up with rope, have been burned through paper, have been taped on and have

been ripped in half. This is to further show these themes.

There’s a lot of intensity within these images. On some of these images, one strand of rope will

be seen; then it grows to two, then to three, then to six, then at the point where most of the

frame has been taken up by this rope. They have been captured by this trauma. The feeling is so

intense and by having this rope it gives the image an emotion of disturbance. More of these

emotions can be seen, in the image where a burn can be seen in the middle of the frame, it

shows the permanent mark this will leave on them. The raw emotion this person is giving

towards the burn is given back onto the viewer from the devastation this has been brought

upon. Another image shows them with tape around their mouth, showing they feel as if they

can’t speak up. This worsens and worsens as time goes on as the trauma grows. Most of these

images represent how they still feel tied up and trapped. The internal screams can be seen on

the image framed most by the rope, the face that has been ripped in half, the body that has

been tied. These photos show the emotion and fear this person has gone through. However in

the final image it shows that while still forever there, acceptance can be found. The rope being

framed much above the figure shows this.

These images can be interoperated however you want to, and I think a lot of people will be able

to relate to and understand these as that feeling of being trapped. It might speak out to

someone with a mental illness. I want these images to show multiple meanings and stories to

people, I want them to feel what these images are about.

These images have been ones I’ve been wanting to take for months but never had the

motivation to do so. But I finally did it, I had a lot of fun using the prints to my advantage. I had

fun playing around with how I could incorporate theme with just using rope. I like the

surrealism and how the rope looks against the black and white. But overall, I just love these

images and will want to try something like this again soon.

Aidan Ali