ABOUT PROJECT (Catadores)
Being bipolar I find it extremely hard being around people with absolute ways of thinking. When designing my personal logo I made a neutral yin yang image in the background. Finding balance is a day to day struggle. Not everything is black or white, What helps me the most is trying to have a global perspective. This works for the good and bad, sometimes I need to have more empathy and sometimes I need a more apathetic approach for living. Catadores (recycle worker) is a global perspective of recycling workers around the world. The purpose of this project is to take a single subject (recycle workers) and through portraits show how different or alike the subject can be around the world. We ask the viewers after seeing the majority of the images to think of their own favorite subject and take a more global approach when researching it. This way of thinking would help bridge our ways of communication. Again being bipolar its very difficult seeing/hearing one sided communication. The world is very complicated, but the human element brings us all together.
ABOUT BIPOLARJOSH
During the 2007 recession, I found myself with a college education but no income. My life changed the day someone I normally help out asked me for some help. I had to explain that I had nothing to give. He asked if I could drive him around in my truck, four hours later we had made ninety dollars scavenging metal. Soon after that, I started photographing a local recycle worker.
Craving more adventure I joined the United States Coast Guard. During my career as a cook for the military, I started having symptoms of bipolar disorder (formerly called manic depression). This started after a very close friend of mine committed suicide. Eventually, I came to terms with being diagnosed with Bipolar 1 Disorder. I go by bipolar josh because I am very public about my disability. I have found most people don't really understand the disorder and only want to stigmatize it. There is a lot of very creative artists with this debilitating disorder.
My deep understanding of struggling to provide the basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing helps me connect with the recycling workers I photograph. The struggle I go through to travel, (fighting chronic pain and depression) I feel gives me a genuine non verbal communication and connection that helps me gain access to the recycle workers I photograph. I do not bring judgment or pitying just a real genuine experience that is shown in my work. I hope viewers of my work get a since of present time like they are right there standing in front of the subjects.
​