Until recently, I was very sceptical about this subject. Since working on this project and after experiencing Ayahuasca myself, I have changed. The ceremony gave me a stronger belief that this project must be developed further. In these difficult times, it is so important to create awareness and highlight the beneficial qualities of these traditional therapeutic interventions to improve mental health and to support the indigenous communities that hold this valuable knowledge. Despite the slowly disappearing culture of the Q’eros and Shipibo Shamans due to the factors of evolving technologies, climate change, political system or religion, our future generations could witness the disaster and loss of the Shamans knowledge and wisdom that could speed up the process of research on psychedelics for mental disorders. There is still hope to solve those issues, but we need to spread the awareness of psychedelic treatment to heal those who suffer and to protect the younger generations who will create a future in this modern and chaotic world.”
Artist Bio
Sandra Mickiewicz is a Polish documentary and portrait photographer who lives and works in London. In 2007, her family immigrated to the United Kingdom, where she started to develop her skills in painting and drawing. She discovered photography at the age of 15 where she stepped into the black and white darkroom for the first time. In 2018, Sandra graduated from Middlesex University in London where she studied photography. She is drawn into very ordinary and conventional moments in our everyday life. Sandra is really inspired by story telling and travelling where she explores unknown places and people that she documents on her journeys. Her photographs were exhibited in the UK and internationally. Sandra’s work has been published by the British Journal of Photography, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Financial Times, New Statesman and The Telegraph. Sandra is fascinated about analogue photography. She mainly shoots on medium format cameras and prints her own work in the darkroom. She is influenced by photographers like Alec Soth, Diane Arbus and Marry Ellen Mark.
