Wendy Moody’s eye is like a magnifying glass. The fine art photographer prefers macro-photography, but more to the point, perhaps, she possesses the ability to expose the most intimate details of her subject by zeroing in on it with that macro lens.

The 41-year-old photographer has been shooting since she was in high school. But back then, her desire to shoot close up images wasn’t well received by her teachers, and she felt she had been shunned, so she set the camera aside for a time.

Eventually, she picked it up again, only this time she understood that she must please herself for the sake of her art, not shoot what she might believe others are interest in seeing.

“I realized I could just take pictures for myself,” says Moody.

That realization worked. Her show currently hanging at Red Rabbit Gallery in Elizabeth City has resulted in the sale of 10 photos, according to gallery owner Dru Thompson. But perhaps there is more to the sale and the appeal of her work than the naked eye is able to see.

Moody’s work is informed by a mental disorder that she points out is commonly misunderstood. She has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder I, and the story of her journey through this misunderstood form of mental illness is expressed in her show, coupling the photographs with short poems that delve into the mind of the artist as she discovers her illness and begins to understand not only the depth of despair that it has taken her to, but also the freedom she now enjoys as she walks the journey of recovery.

The title of the show is “I Have a Story to Tell.” The purpose of this show is to not only exhibit her beautifully detailed and intimate photographs, but also to let people know about bipolar disorder.

“I feel normal for the first time in my life, even though I’m not,” says Moody.

Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder involving manic, or milder hypomania, behavior coupled with episodes of depression. There are varying degrees of bipolar disorder, and behavior varies depending upon the extremes of the disorder.

There has been a fairly recent understanding by mental health professionals who have been involved in the historical research of bipolar disorder, that some of the great artists throughout history suffered from what over time has been dubbed melancholy, manic-depression and now bipolar.

The poet Lord Byron is believed to have suffered from bipolar disorder; not only was his recorded behavior revealing but also letters written to his sister appear to address his bouts with melancholy.

Largely understood to be the archetypal insane artist, Vincent Van Gogh was known to possess some form of mental illness that many professionals today attribute to bipolar disorder.

So it’s no surprise that an artist with an eye such as Moody’s would be diagnosed with such a disorder. What might be a surprise, says Moody, is that she has the disorder in the first place; a surprise at least up until the last couple of years.

Looking back on her life, Moody says she understands now that she was bipolar all along. She says the episodes were largely characterized by manic behavior that was mistaken by friends and family for generosity — it was extreme generosity, however.

From Wake Forest, Moody would graduate university with a degree in education. She came to Elizabeth City to teach home economics at Northeastern High School.

She says in retrospect, she understands that the possibility of depressive episodes in her life was fended off by attempts to experience “adrenaline” highs. She got those through teaching, she says.

“It was a way to get an adrenaline fix,” says Moody.

Other ways Moody would get her mental highs were by giving people gifts.

“My problem was I loved to do things for others and I have given things away,” she says. “When I say give things away, I mean I bought for people.”

And she bought big. Things like computers or televisions for friends.

“I would get a high off giving away things,” says Moody. “That’s called mania.”

And her giving eventually resulted in spending $70,000 in one year on gifts.

“But you would never know that I was excited,” Moody says, of the behavior that accompanied the manic episodes.

And that was the cunning part of the disorder. She could hide that high she was getting, masking it as this incredible generosity.

But something as destructive as bipolar disorder must give way eventually. And for Moody, it would give way when her grandmother in Raleigh needed her care.

Moody’s grandmother was ill and dying. She left her job teaching to care for the woman.

It was an act of love, sure, but it was also the catalyst for a yearlong episode that would lead her, thanks in part to her friends, to recovery.

On Jan. 1, 2010, Moody’s grandmother died. Moody went into a major depressive episode, but by her own admission no one would recognize it, at least not at first.

“I just got to the point that I didn’t want to be around people,” she says.

She didn’t want to leave her house here in Elizabeth City. She had, she says, “lost the ability to be social.”

The only answer left to Moody was suicide. She had made attempts twice before in her life, but this time it would be much different.

“You decide you can’t live,” she says. “You set dates with goals.”

Between the time she set to take her life and the moment she began to plan, there were a number of things she would do. Among them was to take a series of photographs that would eventually be the subject of the current exhibition.

What makes the photos so fascinating is that they are an expression of her experience with bipolar disorder, but not in retrospect. Rather the photographs are the result of manic moments when Moody’s mind could zero in on her subject while simultaneously understanding and planning the composition, the meaning, the concept and the story behind the photographs.

Taking these photographs was not simply the passive act of a shutterbug. This was the act of an artist whose mind was diseased, sure, but also in touch with its subject on a level that perhaps only a few might truly comprehend.

Furthermore, the poems that accompany the photographs were written at the time of the shoots. This makes her experience and the exhibit that much more enthralling, realizing that there was perhaps a prophetic element to the work at hand.

But during that time, the last thing in the world Moody would think about is a future beyond her November date. That would be the time she would take her own life, she had reckoned.

When the time came to take her own life, she had a gun, but no shells. She had gone to a friend’s house on the way to purchase ammunition. The friend realized something was amiss.

“My friend would not let me leave,” Moody says.

With the help of a network of friends, she was watched 24/7 until she was able to get with a therapist. And even after receiving medical and therapeutic attention, Moody says it took her a couple of months before she decided not to taker her own life.

Today she is on two forms of medication. She says she hopes to eventually be down to one medication, but regardless, the results are good.

Right now, Moody isn’t shooting photos, but she hopes to go back to her camera in the near future. She hopes to continue chronicalling the world as she sees it in macro, only these days it will likely be through a new lens.

“I can say I’m having more good days than I ever had in my life,” says Moody.

For more information about Wendy Moody’s exhibit, call Red Rabbit Gallery at 252-331-2700.

Contact Robert Kelly-Goss at rkellygoss@dailyadvance.com