safety tray — Sydney Guido

A "safety tray" is the food tray you're given at a hospital when you're there for psychiatric care. It has only food that can be eaten by hand; no plastic fork or knife because you might cut yourself. No cap on your water bottle because you might swallow it.

Shot over the course of three months in 2016, this series documents my personal spiral of depression, suicidal ideation, and the dissolution of an unhealthy relationship. It combines digital photography with scanned journal entries and momentos to convey a fragmented, hopeless state of mind. Safety Tray is by far the most difficult and unflinching project I've ever undertaken, and I was asked many times while shooting it if it was making things worse. The answer is still I don't know.

This was my final portfolio project in fall 2016.