Dave. 28 years, unemployed and lives with family

“I’ve looked at all the sort of carrots and greens and stuff that I could have bought if I didn’t buy that and I’ve gone and spent my money on alcohol and other things that aren’t good for me like crisps and chocolate biscuits and coke. This is really sort of me representative of me thinking about (giving up alcohol) even though I am indulging in things that I know I shouldn’t be, I am thinking about giving it up and things that I should be doing and I am making steps towards and I think that is what alcoholics need to do.”

Dave. 28 years, unemployed and lives with family

“I walk a lot sometimes with friends sometimes on my own and yeah I go walking on the moors and I’ll walk to town and back or I’ll walk down to (place) and back or I’ll walk on the moors or up (place). I do feel that when you push yourself you get that endorphins rush and it is like an antidepressant. It is it kills pain and it does lift your mood a lot and I think it does help.”

Liam. 38 years, works full time and lives alone

“Just some alcohol. I mean alcohol is alcohol. This is taken in (name of northern town) that’s in shop window. It doesn’t seem so menacing out here whereas if I went back home if I went back up (suburb of northern town) or (part of northern town) it’s sort of like enforced a little bit you know. You go and buy a paper and you’re there like there’s just like bottles of vodka and vodka and vodka staring at you.”

Keith. 52 years, self-employed and lives with family

“This is my daughter’s footprint in our bathroom which as you can see has a very fucked-up floor. I mean our house is very- it’s in the process of renovation and we don’t have any money so it’s very stop-start so we’re living essentially- and parts of it are kind of raw- in their raw state you would say but what I loved was the way that (daughter’s) footprint was and I love the Man Friday aspect of footprints you know that they are beautiful shapes and they show something about a person that perhaps the person can’t even see because they show balance and grace and definition but because it’s wet it’s slightly furry round the edges and it’s hers as well it’s my child’s footprint so that’s really marvellous, It’s just being a father has I think saved my life. I think I’d be dead if I wasn’t a father. I didn’t know that when I became one.”

Mark. 52 years, unemployed and lives alone

“Blossom. Spring sunshine. Ah the park next door but one. Really important. It’s very easy and I think this is probably true for a lot of men because again we isolate even if we’ve got bunches of mates. I think we voluntary tend to isolate ourselves you know this whole problem of guys being told to grow a pair oh don’t be such a fucking fairy blah blah blah so I think that psychologically and emotionally we become very isolated even when we know other males and because we don’t tend to cough out our fears and we don’t cry on each other’s shoulders you know. You don’t get big burly men going oh there there you know they don’t fucking do it you know. Women will express themselves and their friends will put an arm around them hold them you know and guys as a rule don’t do that shit you know. It’s like ah shut up. So you know again isolation. It’s very easy to just be indoors and feel run down and like not doing anything even going out to the shops. I love walking past the park the smell of the blossom or when they’ve just mown the grass. In the crown green bowling all sledging each other it’s bloody hilarious. There’s various wildlife running around the park there’s always something chattering flapping about or climbing trees. Great. I love the park. It’s my own little form of CBT really. And sunlight- I’m a spring baby by birth and I love the sun, I love the blossom. I love the smell of it.”

We thank Temujin Doran and Max Robinson for allowing us to use this image.

Keith, 52 years, self-employed and lives with family

“That’s my view from my work room. We’re like lucky enough to have a work room although it doesn’t have any walls at the minute. It’s in the attic where there are supposed to be two rooms but at the minute it’s a sort of strange arrangement without any walls including onto the staircase. But anyway that’s what you can see. So its- sunsets are what they are aren’t they. So it looks that way. That’s the sun but it’s got an enormous window so you can see sort of almost a 180 degrees almost but it faces sort of west- south west so you get the sun a lot of the day and because we’re on a hill we get it like two hours longer than the people down. What’s healthy about it is it’s a sense of space and invitation you know. The view is there always and allows you to- it gives you a sense of space. It is space obviously. It’s distance and so on so it’s there you know. You come up through the house to the top floor and you know it’s there. I mean you can see it from below but you get the full panorama from the top of the house. So it’s that sense of- well it was a long climb you know. This is the fruit again of a long climb but we made it. We got here you know. We got our house in the country. Fucking hell how did we do that you know. With no money. There’s a lot of lovely sort of senses of achievement you know I win. So I like that. So there’s a sense of completion and achievement which I don’t find in the other images that I don’t seek in the other images.”

Mike Jestico – Winner of Three Minute Thesis Prize University of Leeds Postgraduate Conference 2014 and Runner-up in National Competition 2015.

Brian. 24 years, agency worker and lives with significant other

“I think that if you’re in a relationship, if it’s a healthy relationship and you get on really well then you bounce stuff off each other and help each other out and complement each other and if you get on then it’s like spending time with someone and I consider it to make me happy really.”

Liam. 38 years, works full time and lives alone

“It’s just like an all-round good thing for me having a bike because it keeps me fit. It keeps me alert. I go out on my bike in- in any weather. I’ve even done it in blizzards. It’s a way of adventuring.”

Colin. 50 years, three part-time jobs and lives alone

“We were just- we sat on (northern location) for an hour just having a catch up and looking at the view and for a little while (name of daughter) was going like I know it’s only a rock but this is really comfy so we were just both lying next to each other in slightly different positions on (northern location) just chilling out.”