Most of the time when I’m inside a farm or a slaughterhouse, my emotional system just shuts down. I know I’m there to do my job and document, I’m not there to pay attention to how I feel about it or what I think about what’s going on. But I’m still a human and have to deal with it when I’m back home. It usually hits me when I’m retouching the photos as that’s when I remember the individuals one by one and what happened to each of them.
This role has a heavy toll on my mental and emotional wellbeing, which is why I try my best to stick to a routine that helps me stay in my best mental state. I don’t oversleep or sleep too late, I rarely eat junk food and try to stick to whole foods, I run or exercise, meditate and do ice baths regularly.