Photo Therapy?

Some of my friends know that I majored in Art Therapy in college – at least for the first 2.5 years.   That was over fifteen years ago, but I just sort of realized that I have my own form of artistic therapy that I engage in almost every day.

No, I'm not a practicing Art Therapist.  And I'm not saying that I have some revolutionary technique for life improvement – but I have something that seems to work for me.

Still images.

That's it.

To understand how this works, just turn on the TV and turn down the volume all the way.  The visual information the TV blasts us with surprises me every time I try this.  Imagine being a small child seeing prime-time TV for the first time.  It's so unlike reality, it's scary.

When we juxtapose this with a single photograph, painting, or any still image, it becomes almost meditative. 

A still image creates movement in out mind, not on the screen.  The movement is neurons firing, not pixels changing.  It's like eating with chop-sticks rather than a shovel.  No wonder Eastern culture has hung on to the whole chop stick thing - it is a  meditation in itself.

So when we carry around a digital camera, we have something that can sort of stop the world as we need it.  OK so maybe I sometimes use my iPhone to take a picture of where I parked so I don't forget - maybe it can be a crutch.

Or maybe it's an existential dilemma and I'm worried about people changing and getting old so I think I can somehow stop it by holding their images.

Or maybe its like a drug that I use to put the brakes on a little bit.

Or maybe I'm hiding my face behind it because I want to redirect attention toward others – oh, who am I kidding, I want the attention ;P


What do you think?   How do you use a camera in your life?  Comments welcome.