We Are Photographers

Mariangela Abeo is a photographer, producer, writer and public speaker. She’s the creator of Faces of Fortitude, a movement in portraits that strives to lay a foundation for healing for those affected by suicide. Faces of Fortitude provides a safe, stigma-free space, virtually through social media, and in-person with appearances and gallery events, for mental health and suicide to be discussed. Mariangela recently stood on the TEDx stage for the first time in Youngstown, Ohio to deliver her talk entitled Celebrate the Survivor: Creating a Safe Space around Suicide. Her goal is to combat the mental health stigma at a grassroots level, where it all begins.In this episode Mariangela returns to the CreativeLive studios where Faces of Fortitude was conceived and describes the moment when the lightbulb went off during a class by Stacy Pearsall. We talk about her personal transformation in the past two years since she began Faces as a personal project on the weekends. Being self-taught, she explains what it took to