Ben Eichert's Therapeutic Self-Portraits

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So Long Old Friend, Ben Eichert, digitally manipulated photograph, 2019

When Ben Eichert first started taking self-portraits, it was a therapeutic outlet. He funneled his struggles with depression and anxiety and PTSD from childhood trauma into cathartic release—to process the things he couldn’t talk about. When the 38-year-old exhibited his photographs for the first time at the Lace Mill in January 2020, it was a bit of a coming-out party. “My work is very personal to me and I didn’t want to let it go,” Eichert says. “And I wasn’t sure if my work was too dark or too heavy for people.” The show was ecstatically received, and people began sharing their own stories of depression and anxiety with Eichert. “Our world tells us to feel ashamed,” says Eichert, who identifies as queer. “We need to share the stuff that make us feel like we’re alone, because we’re really not alone.”