Skeleton in the Closet

I used to be very thin when I was 15. I can’t say if it would have been anorexia. Maybe yes… Yes, definitely.
Now I’m 22/23. I’m still quite a rush but a green one.
It isn’t a matter of bones and skin, it’s a matter of mind. I have gained healt since I excaped the system of calculating calories, the day in wich my mouth touched a surprise chocolate without the brain alerting itself.
Now I heal completely.
This photos (and all your work) are a marvelous hymn to imperfection, that is the main (underrated) ingredient of beauty.

(Sorry for the english, I’m Italian)

I found this link through my old treatment center’s blog (Shoreline). Your work is absolutely stunning and really captures eating disorders. Today I was just put on a new weight gain meal plan (after three years in residential) and today I found your site. I emailed my dietitian the link, it’s a very powerful website.

My dietician told me to check out your work after hearing you speak at a conference. It really hit home with me. I have been working on a photo project of my own, some of which has to do with eating disorders as well. It’s called “The Things We Keep Hidden” and you can see it at http://thingswekeephidden.wordpress.com. I’d be honored if you checked it out. Thanks so much for your really meaningful work.

Thank you, thank you for making me feel less alone. Thank you for making what I struggle with seem to matter.

Your work is beautiful. Five years ago I had every test done because I couldn’t stop getting sick. They discovered the problem, which resolved itself in time. When that happened I don’t know, but it kept happening-only now I make myself sick. I finally admitted to myself and someone else a couple months ago in a drug rehab that I am bulimic. I am taking steps to heal so many facets of my disfunctional life: PTSD, bipolar disorder, ED, drug and alcohol addiction…Sometimes I throw my hands up and say, “what’s next?” But then I remember that I have to work through all these things to heal. Behind all these labels I am a beautifully scared and empowered woman. When I close off my heart and mind I stay stuck. As long as I stay open and honest and talk to the people I trust I make progress. Progress rather than Perfection.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Everyone should see your work, it could help so many people understand the depth and breadth of ED. This is a remarkable piece.

Wow this is just amazing. So beautiful and so true. I can totally relate to and understand what nearly all of the pics depict…
In my own life. it’s the grace and love of God that has kept me alive but yeah i still do fall back to my old secret habits..
Thank You for this beautiful project I absolutely love it!

Fritz, you took my senior portraits last fall and I don’t think you ever knew that I have been struggling with anorexia and bulimia for 5 years. I love this series because it doesn’t glamorize eating disorders at all. It shows the real pain that people go through and that it’s not a choice, it’s a disease. I have a love-hate relationship with my eating disorder and am trying to get help. I know that it is the hardest thing I have ever done and will ever do. I have my doubts about whether it’ll be worth it or not, but I keep going if not for myself, for my family and friends. I glance at this page occasionally and am always reminded that I’m not alone. And I’m not crazy for thinking the thoughts that I think, and for feeling the feelings I feel. Thanks so much for that. <3

The Skeletons in the Closet series is extraordinarily powerful and
intense … I suffered from eating disorders for years, as did my
mother, who was a fashion model. I think it’s a much more prevalent
disease than statistics show. I became an active feminist as a
teenager, joined Riot Grrrl meetings, and wrote zines to raise
awareness about body image issues and the role of the media. I was
briefly hospitalized for anorexia, then got very fat out of protest!
I had a breast reduction because my breasts looked so “fat” to me, and
now it is my sincere hope that I will still be able to nurse a child.

I tried every therapy under the sun just to get the stupid voice out
of my head that monitored everything I ate, or was obsessed with how
my butt looked. Long after my weight stabilized, the toxic voice
inside continued to obsess on every detail. The story of the method
that finally “cured” me is a little epic in itself.

First off let me say that it is very refreshing to see a straight man
raise awareness of these issues. I read that you had suffered from
anorexia as well and I appreciate your honesty in coming out with this.

I guess what I found so fascinating about the photo series is the way
that you alternately did and did not reveal the body behind the voice.
I’m just wondering what your intent was – did the subject of the
photo control the revealing (or not) of the body? Or were the
concepts your ideas?

I’m asking because the common rant of feminists is that the media
sexualizes thin bodies to sell products, or to promote insecurity
about physical imperfection so that women don’t claim all the power
available to them. So I’m just wondering if you were thinking about
how easy it is for thin bodies to be sexualized as you were editing
the photos … Sorry if I’m rambling, I’m just still digesting the
content. I guess I’m wondering about the choice to show a whole
figure – when we have all been trained by the media to identify a body
as fit or not fit, thin or fat, attractive or ugly … if I thought
the women in the photo was attractive than it was easier for me to
ignore the text about her suffering.

I thought the photos that only revealed a portion of the body were
more evocative, because they suggest the mystery of the body – the
mystery being that it is always morphing, changing shape, that it will
appear different to different people, and that it is eminently
manipulatable with a camera lens and editing techniques. But then
again I liked the full-figure photo of the women in bikini and cap and
gown, maybe because it was unintentionally ironic – suggesting a
weight loss ad in the back of a magazine.

Sorry, I guess you hit a nerve – I’ve long dreamt of writing a
first-person novel in which the main character obsesses over her
weight, but the reader is never actually sure what she looks like,
because she is described variously by other people as skinny, fat, and
normal looking … which to me describes exactly the experience of
being a woman in this culture – disconnected from any real sense of
our own bodies, and dependent on others for information about our worth.

Well, I think the series does a wonderful job of showing the spectrum
of anorexia and that it doesn’t strictly afflict “model” types. I
guess I’m just wondering if there was an overarching idea in how you
depicted these bodies with your camera – since media images are really
the source of the disease in the first place. Really fascinating and
I will try to make the show in Portland!

This is just an incredible piece of work – thank you for the time you put into the photos and the stories of 65+ people struggling with an incredibly difficult illness. I have two sisters who struggled with ED for years; one still suffers from low self-esteem and body image. I believe this had much to do with her husband leaving her. I also had a friend/business partner who struggled with a deep affliction of anorexia and alcoholism – we finally had to part ways when I couldn’t deal with the incredible (self-imposed) feeling of needing to “save” or be responsible for her well-being. At several points during our partnership, she almost died and I couldn’t handle the daily stress of wondering if she would show up for work or if I’d have to visit her in the hospital that morning. She is currently sober and working hard to stay that way. My guess, based on her appearance, is she is still a practicing anorexic. I try to encourage her recovery through cards and short phone conversations, but I continue to keep my heart at a distance because it is too painful otherwise. The strain that various forms of this illness has put upon me and other family members has cut deep into our relationships, own self-worth, etc. By nature, I am a thick-skinned soul, so it took me years to understand the effects that careless words can have on people and I have become much more careful with my own word choices when dealing with women friends, girls in the neighborhood, my own child. I find that, because of my many experiences with ED victims, I tend to be a little less “in control” of my own habits – not faithful to an exercise regime, usually 5 lbs or so over my “ideal” weight, always having that extra glass of wine or having one more bite of cake – almost as a reassurance that I will not fall into the same trap as my sisters and friends. One of your photography subjects talked about turning off the tv, cancelling magazine subscriptions, etc. What a smart, smart young woman! I think she cut right to the core of one of society’s main negative self-image influences and I was really happy to read that she is now so much healthier since she shut out that part of our culture. My prayers and hopes go out to all of your subjects and to the many, many people out there who struggle with eating disorders.

i have just started dealing with my anorexia and have days when i fee like i’m going crazy. i get so scared sometimes. i know i should eat, but a lot of times i just can’t make myself. ed is too strong. he beats me up quite a bit. if i do eat i feel like i’m going to throw up. somedays i’m very hopeful about recovering from this, but most days i’m depressed and feel like it will never work. i’m 41 and i can’t eat like a normal person. i just want to be able to eat food like normal people, and not feel guilty, or like i shouldn’t even need food. looking and these pictures and reading the stories makes me feel not so alone.

I am 19. I cry inside from the picture I have seen and the stories I have read. I feel a little less alone today. Still confused, still struggling, but a little less alone.

It is always wonderful to see how even the pain and struggles of life are still part of the overall amazing human experience. A series like this shows us the complete spectrum, and the beauty of the absolute truth.

My eating disorder was endured for years in silence and shame. When I finally began therapy at age 24 I began to talk. Later participating in Fritz’s project “Skeleton in the Closet” I was able to tell my story and join with others that had similar stories of suffering to tell. But what Fritz points out is that we are more than stories of suffering — we are stories of heartbreaking vulnerability, strength, and beauty.
Since the time I sat with the doctor and was diagnosed with anorexia and depression I have been on a path of redemption — turning the wreckage into beauty, hopelessness into hopefulness, and shame into healing. Being able to participate in this project was a meaningful and tangible way to celebrate who I am and the story I have to tell. Thank you.

My name is Jamie, and I guess I’m bulimic. I stumbled upon a link to your work, and I found it to be very powerful. I am 30 years old, and it made me feel a bit less alone with having an ED at my age when I saw the photos and read the stories of your subjects.

Thank you so much for the beautiful artwork. I could see a slice of my life (or a slight variation of my own pain) within all your portraits of the women and men that are suffering from various manifestations of the eating disorder. It was sort of walking through a simultaneously very poignant, ugly and beautiful, scary but all too familiar hall of mirrors.

This work touches me very deeply, as I am also recovered from over 35 years of anorexia nervosa. Mr. Liedtke’s work depicts many aspects of this disease as well as bulimia nervosa. Not only the photos, but the narratives as well, tell many stories, each different, but each also horrific. Eating disorders destroy life, either by death, or by life-long consequences from the stress it puts on the physical and emotional person. I am especially touched by this work because I have an intense passion to educate and support those who are suffering, as well as their families. It MUST be known that recovery is possible, and my desire is to somehow be a vessel to help instill that hope. http://www.freefromexpectations.blogspot.com

I had the distinct honor of participating in artist Fritz Liedtke’s body of work entitled “Skeleton in the Closet”. The compelling and intimate portraits captured by Liedtke, along with text, tell stories of average men and women who struggle with anorexia and bulimia. The unique documentary includes portraits of those in recovery as well as those still struggling with their disease. The result is a sobering, powerful insight into one of our society’s most insidious open secrets. “Skeleton in the Closet” is sure to earn Liedtke a reputation as a photographer & artist to be both celebrated and admired in the genre of documentary photographic essays.