Amani Willett's photobook journeys through chronic illness and ketamine therapy to reach his younger self

"the photos depict swirling cloudscapes blown out in inverted whites, timelapsed ribbons of light in the night sky and whispery moments of sleep - in one photo, Amani observes his child's dusky image through an iPad screen. "It's about coming face to face with my younger self, allowing him to rest, and ultimately emerging as a new version of myself - imperfect, but transformed by the act of confronting and understanding these traumas," says Amani."

"It's a complete act of turning inside out, an inversion as severe as the photo of birds so white against the black sky that they look like starling-shaped holes in the world. The book's narrative mirrors Amani's lived experience of touching death's own vapour - in Invisible Sun, when the viewer sees a figure standing in a serene body of water, they also see Amani's own metaphysical baptism, turning vapour to water, the unreal to the real, death to rebirth."

Images move between a haze of memory and the clarity of the present, showing overexposed cloudscapes, timelapsed ribbons of light and whispery moments of sleep. A central motif places a child's dusky image viewed through an iPad beside scenes that confront a younger self, allowing rest and the emergence of an imperfect, transformed self. Visual inversions recur: white birds against a black sky read as starling-shaped holes, and a figure in water functions as a metaphysical baptism, turning vapour to water, death to rebirth. A whiteout culminates in a newborn image that symbolizes renewal and leaves interpretation open. The imagery maps sensations associated with ketamine-assisted therapy using ghostly monochrome, overexposure, dreamlike colours and natural mazes.

Read at Itsnicethat