This idea also runs deep as a folk image: compare the Frankenstein scene between the monster and the innocent little girl. Devon says that on one level the picture represents the idea of the “big, bad, mad, black man” found in many newspaper articles. Devon is over six feet tall, the girl less than half his size. The other is of Devon with Allen’s daughter. Devon points out that such a personal photograph can be used to persuade other people of the benefits of taking their medication, however intrusive or embarrassing it may seem. Forms had to be signed, permission sought the process took so long that the two called it a guerrilla struggle.Įventually Allen and Devon connived to take the photo without all the legal proofs being in place. Allen says it took many months to be allowed to take the photo the authorities were opposed despite Devon agreeing. One is a shot of Devon receiving an injection in his behind. The 26 pictures include Devon playing with a band, tired out with his friends after a gig, laughing with comedian Lenny Henry in a studio, and alone. They met at Sound Minds, a Battersea-based project that uses music to help people with mental problems founded by Devon. The exhibition is about a man called Devon, who suffers from serious mental health problems and has been working with Allen for nearly five years. Photographer Kris Allen uses black and white to focus his portraits on the subject rather than become distracted by colours and textures. And an exhibition that started at Springfield Hospital, Tooting, provides an opportunity to use the word even more. Stark is a word often used to describe black and white photographs. A photographic exhibition that highlights living with schizophrenia leaves a stark impression, says Keith Sellick

Allen in sound mind