2/12/2016 - My Wife gave birth to our second child Maxwell on January 6, 2016. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to photography. I am working really hard to organize my life in an effort to set aside time for my creative endeavors.
"My Life As A Ghost" is a conceptual/self-portrait series depicting my reality living with Attention Deficit Disorder. I was diagnosed with A.D.D. in May of 2010. Living with A.D.D. is a very frustrating ordeal, not only for the individual diagnosed, but also for those that interact with that individual. I wanted to portray what it is like to deal with this diagnosis on a daily basis. The best way to describe living with A.D.D. is that I am "there" but not really "there". Prior to being medicated, it was difficult for me to articulate what feels like a million different thoughts running through my mind at the same time. It is very frustrating and often causes one to lose confidence in ones self. Even though these images are extremely personal in content, I feel they need to be viewed to shed some light on what it is like trying to live a "normal" life when diagnosed with A.D.D.
The idea for this project came to me after receiving "The Strange Case of William Mumler, Spirit Photographer" by Louis Kaplan. I began to experiment with multiple exposures in an attempt to create "ghost-like" images, which lead to the idea for the conceptual self-portrait series "My Life As A Ghost".
CJ Bryant is a photographer from Suffern, New York. CJ received a B.S. in History from SUNY Oneonta in December of 2004. Having a love for history, CJ is drawn to photography because of a photograph's ability to freeze a moment in time, allowing a look back at what once was. CJ considers himself a Landscape/Nature photographer at heart, but his most recent project, “My Life As A Ghost”, draws inspiration from spirit photography. “My Life As A Ghost” is a Conceptual/Self Portrait series depicting CJ's life living with Attention Deficit Disorder. CJ started the series while attending SUNY Rockland in the Fall of 2012 and completed the series in the Spring of 2013, while taking Color Photo I and Color Photo II with Professor/Photographer Sara Macel. From this series, “The Garage”, was selected to the SUNY 2013 Fall Student Art Exhibition and “The Pines”, was selected to the Online Gallery Annex for the Photoplace Gallery’s exhibition Figures|Contexts and was published in the exhibition catalog. "My Life As A Ghost" was on exhibit in the Student Union at SUNY Rockland from March 1, 2014 to October 2014.
CJ resides in Suffern, NY with his wife Arielle, daughter Gemma, son Maxwell and dog Hambone. CJ loves collecting and shooting with vintage/modern film camera's loaded with a variety of mainstream/experimental film stocks.