Limbo

The sky is dark, and the streets are quiet. Only the sounds of the occasional car filter through your window. The unforgivably bright clock digits tell you there’s still several hours until sunrise, but it already feels like it’s been an eternity. Your head is foggy and heavy. Your eyes burn when you open them to stare at the ceiling. Your limbs are restless and your heart pounds rapidly in your chest. How long has it been? How long will it be? Until sleep takes you over you are stuck in limbo. Trapped between feeling awake and asleep.

For those who suffer from insomnia this is a feeling they know all too well. Only about 10% of the population experiences chronic insomnia. I’m one of them. Sleep deprivation affects everything I do; it weighs heavily on my mind and mental state and every day. Yet at the same time it’s something that I have gotten used to. A frustrating battle within your own mind just as common as self-doubt or fear. This photo essay sought to capture this part of my life that exists while everyone else is asleep. In a series of 16 photographs, Limbo tells the story of the tired insomniac wandering out into the lonely streets of the early morning. Exhausted and disorientated as their mind attempts work on low battery, their only companion is the dark shadows of the night.

Inspired by the dark photographic pieces of French photographer Antoine d’Agata, Limbo was an experimental journey with vulnerable self photography and capturing night scenes.

Created for Dublin City University’s Imaging class as part of the Emerging Media MSc course.