Edmonton photographer captures portraits of fellow mental-illness survivors

Blake Loates, an Edmonton photographer, was overwhelmed to see that over a 100 people reached out to her for the portrait series she was commisssioned by the Canadian Mental Health Association for Suicide Prevention week. Originally planned for 20 portraits, she couldn't turn away people when they reached out and opened up about their own struggles with mental health. Having been personally affected by mental health since a young age, and even working as a psychiatric nurse for many years, this portrait series was very important to her. She says, "This is the kind of the change I wanted to make in the world when I decided to do advocacy," and hopes that her work can shed some light on the face of mental illness.

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