Emily Nachbauer is graduating from Parsons School of Design with a Bachelor’s Degree in Photography and Psychology. Growing up in upstate New York allowed her to use the environment around her to her advantage, creating colorful and unique images. Emily also uses her own personal experiences to fuel the concepts of her work, which can vary from fine art to fashion editorials. She is currently working on a photobook “For Me, From Me” that talks about her history of mental illness, diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, and her recent breast reduction surgery.

For Me, From Me is a book composed of both photographs and written text and is about specific events that have happened within the last 6-7 years of my life. These life changing events, my most recent breast reduction, my struggle with self-harm and eating disorder, my diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, and my relationships, have shaped and changed me into the person that I am today. I reflect back on these situations and open up, through text, about some thoughts and obstacles that I was dealing with at the time.

After being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, my fourth diagnosis so far, I decided to look back at these events to try and search for some type of explanation as to how or when I developed all of these “problems.” Searching for an explanation as to why I am the way that I am was not as easy as I thought it would be. I found myself constantly shifting and changing my behaviors to adjust to this new diagnosis. Old memories and diagnoses all seem to have a different meaning now and this book is my way of navigating these events and the constantly changing parts of myself and my life.