• Home
  • 2025 Capstone
    • Caitlyn Anderson
    • Jaeda Armijo
    • Lily Beckley
    • Pearl Begay
    • Rachel Bisson
    • Elijah Bustamante
    • Jessi Casey
    • Isabella Couture
    • Beau Foy
    • Matthew Guinn
    • Sandra Huaman
    • Emily Hunt
    • Wyatt Kinkade
    • Tristan Lovely
    • Maiya Maier
    • Sarah Manning
    • Sarah Marshall
    • Zane Nellos
    • Brayden Pfister
    • David Sarabia
    • Grace Schwenn
    • Lukas Wisner
  • 2024 Capstone
    • Nicole Allen
    • Jesse Bable
    • Isabel Billeci
    • Elizabeth Burton
    • Ruqing Cao
    • John Chaides
    • Lily Combs
    • Amanda De Luca
    • Alyssa Etsitty
    • Falonda Ferguson
    • Jacob Handley
    • Bill Hobbs
    • Katelyn Howerton
    • Bella Hutzler
    • Rhianna Kahley
    • Forrest Loving
    • Maricela Ontiveros
    • Lexi Tognela
    • Kaitlyn Toomey
    • Sophia Schulfer
    • Sarah Venegas
  • 2023 Capstone
    • Ben Akers
    • Elinor Beazley
    • Leonardo Chavez
    • Jeff Chow
    • Megan Ford-Fyffe
    • Alisha Gebe
    • Bethany Hicks
    • Alesia Hurtado
    • Rowan Lantz
    • Jen Litt
    • Sophia Marino
    • Mariah Menor
    • Lilly Petruske
    • Emma Reynolds
    • Ashley VanHouten
    • Chandler Vaughan
    • Madison Williams
  • 2022 Capstone
    • Tesa Ahuna Turqueza
    • Omar Barrera
    • Kylie Brennan
    • Leanne Brodie
    • Alyson Disbrow
    • AJ Edelman
    • Sydney Fife
    • Christyana Fletcher
    • Meghann Grace Peltz
    • Aaron Heinrich
    • Elliot Lovell
    • Jade Luther
    • Jack McMIllan
    • Omar Noah Gonzalez
    • Dawson Peters
    • Eden Smith
    • Sarah Tuttleman
    • Cameron Zucker
  • 2021 Capstone
    • Juana Apachito
    • Caleb Autry
    • Kylie Barela
    • Carlynn Begay
    • Timmy Deppe
    • Michael Gregersen
    • Charlotte Haston
    • Madeleine Howard
    • Alan Kammerman
    • Diana Ochs
    • Michael Patacsil
    • AnnaLycia Patrice
    • Marisa "MP" Pinette
    • Celia Reid
    • Maria Saldivar
    • Lindsay Tolstedt
    • Kayla Willis
    • Natalie Wiseman
    • Tyler Woodward
    • Yingni Wu
  • 2020 Capstone
    • Marc Amaya
    • Nicole Babler
    • Cassidy Coles
    • Shannon Cowan
    • Emilio Ferrara
    • Courtney Jorgenson
    • Savi Klasen
    • Katie Kroeppler
    • Savannah McKinzie
    • Stephanie McLean
    • Carynn Meyers
    • James Muraki
    • Sierra Olson
    • Grace Oresman
    • Katherine Perry
    • Cecilia Polichetti
    • Alastair Poll
    • Jayna Powers
    • Maria Rene Marsh
    • Miles Rhoades
    • Claire Sipos
    • Shelby Sorensen
    • Austin Sudweeks
    • Michaela Sullivan
    • Jenni Summers
    • Shannon Swain
    • Tehlor Takahata
    • Bess Valdez
    • Margaret Whittaker Reniker
    • David Williams

SHELBY SORENSEN

Hey, I’m Shelby


After months of doctor visits, inconclusive test results and them pulling my mother to the side and questioning whether I was just having trouble in school or seeking attention I was finally diagnosed with a chronic reproductive disease. They made me feel like it was all in my head because even though this disease it increasingly more common in younger women doctors are still slow to accept that it isn’t just a disease for older women and are quick to dismiss the tell tale signs of excruciating cramps and heavy bleeding as just “being how periods are”. However, despite finally having answers I still felt so lost, I was mad and confused and it made me feel like I was less of a person somehow. This is when I began to seriously switch the trajectory of my photography and began using it as a tool for self expression to work through these complex emotions and taboo topics that no one wanted to talk to me about. Then, four years after my diagnosis I had to have uterine surgery to remove a mass that could have potentially been cancerous just days before I had to fly back to school. After repeatedly asking for help and being sized up by complete strangers and denied any assistance because I looked like an able-bodied twenty year old woman I was fed up; fed up with an ableist society that didn’t believe young seemingly healthy and able-bodied people could be struggling and need help. That is when the idea for ‘Beneath the Surface’ was really born as a project focused on starting a conversation and raising awareness around invisible illnesses and disabilities. I wanted to find a way to conceptually photograph these illnesses as a way to make society acknowledge that they exist as opposed to teaching us that they are something that we should keep to ourselves and handle on our own. Invisible illnesses can affect anyone and everyone, and odds are you know at least one person struggling with some form of invisible illness because it can take all forms including mental illness, reproductive disorders, learning disabilities, and many others. I wanted to combine my love of portraiture and conceptual photography for this project to visually represent these otherwise non-visible conditions for each individual person as if you could actually see what they go through and have to live with. I wanted to create a safe space for people to tell their stories and remind everyone to not judge a book by its cover because you never know what’s beneath the surface.

393-sorensen-1.jpg

Age: 22

Illness: Ovarian Cysts

What does it feel like to you: When one bursts it feels like an intense stabbing pain and then residual cramps for hours… if I were to visualize having a cyst burst I think of it as getting struck by lightning. I’m totally fine one second, then I get struck and it’s a super sharp pain that fizzles out to the rest of my abdomen and fingers.

395-sorensen-2.jpg

Age: 26

Illness: Hypothyroid

What does it feel like to you: Fatigue, knowing I’m physically fine but my body is telling me there is something wrong, and that there is a ton of weight on me. Feels like I’m moving through quicksand and something is moving me back, like my brain is physically buried in honey.

397-sorensen-3.jpg

Age: 19

Illness: Alexithymia

What does it feel like to you: If it’s a rough day and I’m feeling a lot of different emotions, it’s hard to concentrate, as well as it’s difficult for me to understand other people’s emotions towards me…it’s like a swarm of hands reaching for me and tugging on me, wanting to be listened to.

400-sorensen-4.jpg

Age: 22

Illness: Endometriosis

What does it feel like to you: I’m usually bedridden for 2-3 days…it physically feels like pressure radiating from within and pressing down around the rest of my body.

402-sorensen-5.jpg

Age: 21

Illness: Narcolepsy

What does it feel like to you: It is mentally taxing, I can usually push myself through my daily activities that I need to such as volleyball practice, but once my body slows down and stops moving I fall asleep. This can be doing anything not physically which makes homework and school increasingly difficult.

404-sorensen-6.jpg

Age: 24

Illness: Bipolar 2 Disorder

What does it feel like to you: My illness is a voice of consistent impulsiveness. Over time I’ve had to learn how to ignore it, but it is the driving force in my head. I have learned to block out the more substantial impulses as I’ve grown, but to ignore these I need to be entirely focused on resting and no movement.

NAU PHOTOGRAPHY CAPSTONE