Autism Unveiled Week 5
What does your autism mean to you?
Autism means entrapment and exclusion to me.
My own website deals with how a late diagnosis of an autism related condition (dyspraxia) affected me and how my life has changed because of it. The site contains my own short stories, a play and a gallery of my photographs, including an album of my emotionally-filled photographs of fellow autistic artists at an art exhibition in which my work was also displayed, and my photo poems, which were an early experimentation in expressing.
Photography has always been my passion, but since I have been diagnosed as having dyspraxia and being on the “autism spectrum,” it has now become my means of self-expression and self-exploration. I find myself taking more and more photographs conveying abstract themes. I then post-process and edit them to convey my own intensely personal interpretation of what I see. Almost like a virtual interface between my world as an erudite and creative soul trapped within the the autism spectrum and the world as perceived and understood by the “normal” majority.
Since discovering Facebook, I have taken advantage of the opportunity to share my images and perceptions with an ever-growing circle of creative photographers, artists and poets who have commented on my images and shared their own images, giving me a source of inspiration and direction.
Gerry Mecham, Trent, United Kingdom
Gerry’s website is http://gerrymechanphotographer.com/.
Gerry is part of the Autism Unveiled Project – 6 weeks of posts from people on the autism spectrum commencing on April 2, 2015, World Autism Awareness Day.
