Manuela Thames: Trauma | MONOVISIONS - Black & White Photography Magazine

MonoVisions Black & White Photo Contest 2025

This self-portrait series aims to explore the themes of brokenness, the struggles of loss and grief, the regrets of past decisions and my personal experiences with generational trauma and mental health struggles. I was raised in Germany by parents who were born in the 1930s and both experienced significant trauma as children and young adults due to World War II. My parents were both quite a bit older than many of my friends’ parents, and I often perceived my home as “different” from others because they had lived through experiences that my friends’ parents had not. From an early age, I would often experience the atmosphere in my home as a dark cloud that was always present, a cloud that included fear, sadness, and depression, as well as control, manipulation, and suppression. Understanding the connections between my parent’s upbringing, the stories of their parents, and the effects of that on my life and my personality has taken years of research, therapy, and perhaps above all the sort of processing and reconciliation that comes through artistic expression.
As I have made a personal choice to consciously break away from certain patterns, distance myself from unhealthy behavior and break the chain, I have been able to discover the immense abilities we humans possess to cope with trauma, the strength that evolves out of suffering, and our common desire for healing and wholeness.

‘Trauma’ was the Black & White Conceptual Series of the Year 1st place Winner in the MonoVisions Photography Awards 2019.