Louis Quail is a documentary photographer who is best known for his personal, long term projects. He also does lectures and exhibits internationally as well as completely short films. Quail recently completed a project called ‘Big Brother’ in which he documented his brother’s life and his struggles with Schizophrenia. He has received several nominations/ awards for this body of work, including the Series Winner, ‘Big Brother’, Renaissance Photography Prize [Review: The Guardian]
The Metro Imaging Award, ‘Big Brother’ Portfolio Review, Format17
and he was Shortlisted, ‘Big Brother’, Wellcome Photography Prize, Social Perspectives, London, UK. (https://louisquail.com/about/, 2020)
Louis Quail’s brother Justin, has diagnosed Schizophrenia which has caused complications within his day to day life as well as family and friends lives. Within this project, Quail documents a number of different aspects of his brother’s life showing his struggles.
He uses scans of his brothers artwork, he is very interested in Bird Watching and so this is a big part of his life.
I found this work to be very powerful and inspiring. I also love the play on words for the title ‘Big Brother’ as he is in fact his brother however he is watching his every move to be able to document his life accurately.
I feel this project links to my own in the aspect of being watched and the mental health aspect of things, as it is not necessarily easy to show someone’s mental health through images, but that is exactly what Louis Quail has done here, and he has done a pretty amazing job at it as well. Even though I am not documenting peoples lives as such, from taking images with hidden cameras I am able to catch them without them knowing, so it is completely natural angles.