Rare phobias brought to life in a series of sinister collages

About 18% of US residents suffer from diagnosed anxiety disorders. 8.7% of people suffer from specific phobias, including quite common ones — for example, claustrophobia (fear of confined spaces), agoraphobia (fear of crowds or open spaces) or acrophobia (fear of heights). There are people with more unusual phobias that are often associated with certain subjects. Collage artist David Delruelle collaborated with photo editing app VSCO to select a few rare phobias to make black-and-white illustrations for them.

The artist had ten days to create eight images, each based on one of the diagnosed rare phobias. Delruelle himself was not the victim of an anxiety disorder. But he had to get into the minds of those who know this firsthand. So he advanced in understanding why some people are afraid of seemingly ordinary things. The project seemed fascinating to him, and he even admitted that he shares the disturbing feelings of trypophobia (fear of holes). "I must say, I find them rather unpleasant," Delruelle said.

Delruelle's images are reminiscent of the mood of the films of Alfred Hitchcock, and this is no coincidence. They are made from archival footage from the 1950s and 1960s, an era when pop culture was tinged with paranoia about the spread of communist ideology in the world and the gradual transition of the United States from organized religion to secular spiritualism.

As the deadline pressed, the artist completely immersed himself in the project and did not sleep at night, combining vintage photos and imagining surreal scenarios in photoshop. According to Delruelle, the most difficult was kumpunophobia: I had to work hard to make the buttons look scary.

Most phobias manifest by the age of seven. One of the most effective methods of treatment is cognitive behavioral therapy, specifically, experiencing the situation and preventing the habitual reaction when the patient repeatedly encounters the object of his phobia. Over time, after many times, the symptoms of panic — rapid heartbeat, cold sweat, suffocation-recede.

Delruell's work — in a sense, like Hitchcock's-is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy. Life is destroyed not only by anxiety disorders, but also by the silent, but constant and exhausting feeling of anxiety that haunts people in their daily lives. Perhaps, if you face your fears face to face, you can get rid of them, at least for a while.