Art, for artists and their audiences alike, is therapeutic; and this rings true for Anne Nobels, a South African photographer based in the Netherlands who immortalises vulnerability in her personal project, Outside the Lines. Considering it somewhere halfway between reality and fiction, the series touches on her personal struggles with panic attacks. Confronting this anxiety with photography, she allows her mind to wander and play, focusing instead on the positive side effects that any condition or illness may bring.
Her backdrops, as well as their colors, are overwhelming: barren sandy beaches, thick forests, hay-strewn fields in bright reds, yellows or purples. In the middle of it all appears her subject, naked and vulnerable, body contorted into unbearable positions. The metaphor has never been clearer: these are portraits of outside forces trying to manipulate the lone subject, yet despite its power over her, she stands her ground and resists.
More of her work on her website and Instagram.
Images © Anne Nobels / with permission