Gordon Jackson

"The images are located in the tradition of self-portraiture and my aim is to explore aspects of the human condition alongside recognising my emotional journey in recovery from addiction. To some degree this body of work deals with raw emotions, which are difficult to verbalise.

From the age of 12 I began to self-medicate and continued to do this for 20 years. Gradually I became more dependent on changing my mood and blocking out my emotions with excessive amounts of alcohol and drugs, until my life became so unbearable that I had reached the jumping off point, I decided to quit!

Nearly four years on my life is unrecognisable from what it was. Yet, I still feel uncomfortable with myself, frustrated with the confusion of my newly regained emotions and frightened of discovering and accepting who I really am."