Using Photography to Re Imagine Oneself

Re-Imagining the Self through Photography

Introduction

All photographs captured or maintained by an individual are a form of self-portrait or mirror of memories that reflects instances and individuals sufficiently special to forever be preserved in time. Together, photographs show the stories going on in an individual's life, and function as the visual footprints that identify where they physically and emotionally were at some instance in life, besides also potentially indicating where they may be headed towards next. Even their responses to postcards, photos clicked by other people, and magazine photographs may offer clues that shed light on their internal life and secrets. The true meaning of a photo does not lie so much in the graphic facts it holds as it does in the details that are called to the mind or heart of every individual viewer. When perceiving a picture, individuals, in effect, instinctively create meanings which, in their view, are emanating from the picture, which might or might not be what the photographer desired to convey in the first place. Hence, the emotional message and meaning of a photo depends on the viewer, as individuals' distinctive life experiences and opinions invariably and unconsciously frame as well as define what is perceived as real to them. Hence, the response of an individual to a photo which they perceive to be special may end up revealing quite a lot regarding themselves, should they pose the right sorts of questions (Weiser, 2008).

Halkola claims that photography within the therapeutic and medical context focuses chiefly on facilitating a person's capability of understanding and manifesting emotions, thereby supporting self-understanding. The name frequently given to such an intervention modality is Photo Therapy (Halkola, 2013). But academicians utilize this term within the literature for dealing with a broad array of interventions that typically differ greatly from one another and introduce photographic stimuli for distinct, multiple reasons (Loewenthal, 2009). Concurrently, the diverse legal requirements linked to therapeutic activity, as well as diverse types of licenses for practicing psychotherapy in nations, complicate the term's definition (Weiser, 1999).

What is Therapeutic Photography?

Therapeutic photography entails the capture, analysis, and use of photographs to assist with individual healing/recuperation, development, or understanding, both conscious and unconscious. Through active construction, examination, and reflection on photos coupled with pairing them with creative written compositions, one can better understand oneself and how one perceives the world around oneself (The One Project Education, 2020).

It is a well-known adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. But how far is this claim true? It all relies on how one utilizes it. The use of photography in medical therapy is a practice that can be traced as far back as the 1850s to when Hugh Welch Diamond employed photographic processes for recording and highlighting diverse strains of psychological ailments that he discovered in women patients, believing the capture of an individual's appearance in photographic form gave one a glimpse of their character as well (Drinkwater, 2008). Following the Second World War, recovering war veterans banked on photography as a hobby; however, its therapeutic advantages were observed as well, which resulted in this approach's implementation in several civilian hospitals in the nation for facilitating patient recovery from mental and physical ailments (Glover-Graf & Miller, 2006). Ever since the start of this century, therapeutic photograph usage has been segregated into the following two groups: therapeutic photography and phototherapy.

Academic researchers have realized and acknowledged the benefits yielded by photography in exploring lived experiences, as it is capable of rendering details and possesses an air of authenticity, which accords its distinctive power and appeal. Through structuring this assessment against a socio-ecological backdrop and theory grounded in themes at individual levels of the theory, photographic therapy participants may be summoned and urged to deliberate on their experiences. With the guidance of a facilitator, they can take up an analysis of their photos, discussing the import of a snapshot before delving into the positive elements of their character within self-portraits. Family photos may be shared as well as produced for representing significant micro-systemic relationships. Days may be visually examined for looking at challenges and routines, with group projects analyzing pertinent issues for highlighting the issues and advantages of minorities while pictorially observing the macrosystem.

The performance of the above kind of therapeutic session between participant and facilitator aids the development of therapeutic relationship dynamics. The participant's body language gets altered when he/she willingly allows facilitators to come forward and view the photo; the two no longer maintain eye contact, as the eyes are busy scrutinizing the picture, facilitating more open and comfortable discussion. Participants turn into experts in a given situation since they have decided upon the object or scene to capture in their photo, what to display to the facilitator, and how to describe the photo, which implies that they are more in control of the therapeutic context now. Control brings with it confidence as well as the capability of engaging in discussions with facilitators, who display a sincere interest in what has been captured in the photo. The benefits further increase when facilitators conduct group photographic therapy sessions since outcomes improve in the presence of peer learning (Gibson, 2017).

Weiser (2004) provides a difference between the two previously mentioned strategies, claiming that phototherapy denotes structured photograph usage within therapy or counseling which is, by definition, carried out by a qualified therapist or counselor, while therapeutic photography denotes photo-based group or self-initiated action which needs no formal therapist or counselor. For several practitioners who are keen on the use of photos within their practice for the exploration of issues, though lacking formal qualifications, therapeutic photography is the ideal approach to employ.

In actual practice, the above strategies cross into some grey areas. For instance, in the case of both approaches, a practitioner may not be trained on how photos must be decoded; pictures form the catalyst for communicating and a path to the unconscious, in certain instances (Weiser, 2004). A practice may only be considered 'therapeutic' if it is associated with an end-user (i.e., patient) benefit that deepens self-understanding while improving coping approaches and decreasing internal conflict (Borden, 2000). Hence, therapeutic photography enables participants to revel in clicking photos, though at the same time opens them to questioning the photo, deliberating on its content, and, in the process, finding out more about their selves. As this is potentially linked to outcomes like self-expression, treatment, recuperation, empowerment, and rehabilitation, Halkola (2013) recommends leading of these sessions by experts capable of facilitating with potentially arising emotions (for instance, health, social work, and academic professionals).

As individual photographs permanently capture key instances of everyday life as well as linked emotions that are unconsciously embedded in them, they may function as a form of the natural bridge to access, examine, and communicate memories and emotions (including long-forgotten or deep-seated ones), in addition to any related psychotherapeutic issues highlighted by them. Patient photographs form a metaphoric transitional article and perceptible symbolic self-construct that silently provides inner "insights" in matters not orally accessible or not very clearly apparent. Guided by a counselor/therapist with PhotoTherapy technique training, patients analyze their individual personally meaningful family albums and photos from an emotional as well as visual perspective. These details lie latent within every individual personal photograph, though when they may be utilized for focusing and precipitating therapeutic discussion, a less censored and more direct link to the unconscious typically results. In the course of phototherapy sessions, snapshots aren't simply passively and silently analyzed; rather, they are actively developed, heard, posed for, spoken to, edited, and reconstructed for creating or illustrating novel narratives, gathered on assignment, incorporated into artistic therapy expressions, re-pictured in the mind's eye, or set into dynamic animated dialogues with other photographs. This enables patients to more effectively reach, grasp, and express themselves in a way that can't be wholly represented or deconstructed by words alone (Weiser, 2008).

Evidence from Research

From the emotional perspective, photos were used for examining the individual experiences of persons suffering from chronic ailments, or as the means for expressing feelings and emotions. Several research works on the topic have demonstrated the way photographic stimuli allow clients to give voice to their mental and physical challenges, particularly in the case of child and teenaged participants. This has been adequately represented in a research work that attempted to explore the distinctive life perspectives of teens and younger children suffering from SCD (Sickle Cell Disease) that is linked to major impairments when it comes to the patient's mental and physical health. In particular, among teens and younger children, this illness adversely impacts peer relations and social functioning, with long-run risks for their mental health, life quality, and performance at school. Burks and Stegenga (2013) performed pilot research with the use of Photovoice – a kind of participatory action study– on a study sample comprising of a dozen participants aged 6-14 years enrolled in summer camp expressly designed for children diagnosed with SCD and their brothers and sisters. The research reveals how photo usage facilitates access to the emotional experiences of young children suffering from SDC, stressing the significance of friends, camp, and symptoms management for them (Stegenga & Burks, 2013).

Graham, Leder, and Stockinger (2013) utilized photographs in the case of Alzheimer's patients, particularly those individuals suffering from major cognitive impairments. The researchers' aim was examining the aesthetic view (which may be described as the cognitive skill that allows for aesthetic judging of photos, pictures, or paintings) of persons suffering from the illness, through comparing them with a cluster of aged persons not suffering from the illness. An element of novelty springs up here by the focus of the researchers on various image contents (including photographic and painted landscapes and portraits). A total of 4 groups of 8 pictures were employed in the form of stimuli, with participants required to rank them based on their aesthetic preference. After a fortnight, half a dozen pairs of pictures were displayed before them (including old and distracter pictures), with the participants required to tell which pictures they had previously viewed. The outcomes reveal that Alzheimer's patients possess aesthetic skills comparable to control group members in case of every photo and painting, except photos of faces; this indicates that in case of Alzheimer's patients, aesthetic perception of pictures represents an aspect of stability within the context of an illness which results in the cognitive disruption.

Techniques of Phototherapy

Akin to the fingers on an individual's hand, the 5 PhotoTherapy approaches are interdependent and interlinked and are most effective if combined synergistically. PhotoTherapy does not entail interpretation of the photographs of a person for him/her; rather, the input must invariably flow from the patient, with the assistance of image-stimulated questions posed by the counselor/therapist when the two are together examining the photo and its associated emotional effect. As patients talk about the different layers of meanings that their photos contain, they end up revealing quite a lot about themselves: their beliefs, intrinsic value system, views, and expectations, which are inseparable from their words. Such nonverbal codes possess major clues that provide insights into how individuals understand the world around them and their standing in it. Clicking and bringing photographs with them to therapeutic sessions is only the beginning. After viewing the picture, the subsequent step is an activation of everything it elicits within the mind of the viewer (analyzing its graphic message, posing questions to it, discussing with it, mulling over the outcomes of diverse standpoints or envisioned changes, etc.). Thus, what is, to the photographer, often the end photograph/product or end-point, forms the beginning in case of PhotoTherapy. The main responsibility of the therapist will be urging and supporting patients as they make individual discoveries when analyzing and working with regular individual and family photographs viewed, created, collected, reminisced, or envisioned by them. All 5 PhotoTherapy approaches are grounded in at least one of the types of photos described below, though in reality, the groups generally overlap naturally:

1. Photographs that were captured or developed by the patient (whether through actually making use of a camera for clicking the image, or appropriating (i.e., "taking") the images of others using collecting "found" pictures from the web, postcards, magazines, digital manipulation, etc.)

2. Photographs of the patient clicked by others, whether clicked unawares and spontaneously or having them consciously pose for them

3. Self-portraits or any type of patient's image created by the patient, whether figuratively or literally (though in any case, this sort of picture of the patient must be one in which they had complete power and control over every facet of photo creation). Self-portraits have complicated, ancient origins, with Dionysus and Narcissus's myths exemplifying the human need to represent oneself. The above need indicates the key role of self-images in the development and stabilization of one's identity as Spence's work underscores. Thus, photographic self-portraits accord persons an opportunity of shaping them individual images based on their wishes and needs, allowing for self-reflection (Nuñez, 2009).

4. Photo-biographies such as family albums (of one's birth family, other families of choice, etc. maintained formally within albums or combined "loosely" into narratives through placing them on fridge doors, walls, family websites, in wallets, as computer wallpapers, etc.)

5. "Photo-Projectives" that claim a photo's meaning is mainly created by the viewer when viewing it. A glimpse at any sort of photo/image gives rise to responses and perceptions projected from the internal map of the reality of the viewer that helps decide how to understand what is viewed.

Thus, this approach doesn't lie in a specific type of photo; instead, it resides in a less-tangible place or interfaces between photograph and creator/viewer, where all individuals create their distinctive reactions to the perceived image. Akin to several other holistic techniques, PhotoTherapy also suffers to a certain extent from being disassembled for step-wise analysis, when all approaches are partly created by, and overlap, several others. Hence, the ideal way to apply these approaches would be to creatively combine them – as they are composed of a fundamentally interconnected system much more useful all together, as compared to any partial linear summation (Weiser, 2008).

Social identity theory illustrates the procedure via which a person enhances his/her identity using perceived membership within a particular social group, where an understanding of oneself is reinforced through hearing fellow group members' experiences. This theory further develops the process, recognizing a reflexive facet in which persons start comparing themselves with other persons within the group, defining roles in their lives (Stryker and Burke, 2000)—using sharing pictures within a therapeutic setting, a shared interest in the pursuit of photography, and guiding each other on the right degree of disclosure, group members bond with each other and assert their commonality and identity (Gibson, 2017).

Empirical research in the areas of community and societal well-being and health demonstrate the use of this approach on a wide range of participants, right from transsexuals to aggrieved patients, and those dealing with the aftereffects of a stroke or Alzheimer. Aranda and coworkers (2015) came up with and put into practice a participatory photographic pedagogic technique when training nursing students, for facilitating their awareness of their respective values and cultures when striving to deliver culturally competent patient care. A second example is gender story elicitation within a small set of transsexuals. The protocol employed a visual-narrative technique for portraying participant identity. In specific, study findings suggest that the use of photographic stimuli when reviewing an individual's gender story doesn't pathologize his/her condition; rather, it serves as a means of contemplating over their life experiences.

Benefits of Therapeutic Photography

Photography may be considered a kind of current state awareness or mindfulness like meditation that has established its usefulness in aiding individuals diagnosed with anxiety and depression. Typically, when clicking a photograph, one will find oneself in "flow," giving rise to numerous health benefits akin to those brought about by meditation (e.g., calming one's mind and offering stress relief). Art aids individuals in expressing personal experiences too hard to verbalize (for instance, being diagnosed with a deadly disease like cancer). Through the creation of photographs, one is proud of; one may begin developing or improving on one's self-esteem. Likewise, sharing one's photos and acquiring the positive feedback of viewers may further develop one's self-confidence and sense of empowerment that aids one in becoming more comfortable with sharing one's views, story, and thoughts with other people. A research carried out in 2014 revealed that individuals who engaged in the development of visual art displayed a significant rise in individual psychological resilience. Levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter, which may be low in individuals with depression, may be increased by this process and is revealed to instantly begin helping prevent depression-related behaviors (The One Project Education, 2017).

An individual's perception of self and his/her surrounding world may be slowly examined and altered by capturing, studying, and discussing photos with other people. Neuroplasticity reveals that the human brain is capable of constant change all through life, as well as of developing fresh connections. Individuals, consequently, bank on therapeutic photography for helping themselves as well as other people in getting over anxiety, depression, chronic pain, etc. (The One Project Education, 2017).

Foucault's Theory and Photography

Over the past thirty years, photography theory and its criticism have been governed by reflections on the ideological processes of photo creation and associated served power. A few highly intriguing related approaches include Victor Burgin (1982), John Tagg (1988), and Alan Sekula (1989). This growing interest in the political and ideological dimensions of photography largely arises from the Anglo-American context, with its major theoretical influences being Michel Foucault's efforts, especially his well-known works, "The archeology of knowledge" (1969) and "Discipline and Punish" (1975). Intriguingly, the French photography theory is nearly totally devoid of this influence. In the latter book, Foucault scrutinizes the panoptic prison model of Jeremy Bentham (1791), a utilitarian, which he ties to the growth of disciplinary dispositive.

Foucault's influence lies partly in the work above, resulting in a technique between panoptical politics or "disciplinary mechanism" (to quote his words) and photography uses and processes. He uses a variety of works for studying institutional, organizational growth and related instruments, establishing how prisons, healthcare facilities, and educational institutions emerge from a novel order, and finding support within the novel scientific debate that establishes observational skills as the most desirable instrument. The author concludes that discipline arose from the French Revolution and "Lightning." Photography was invented within this epistemological context, encountering artistic naturalism and realism simultaneously as the positivist theory was being proposed. As a kind of technology that replicates the perceived image of an object, photography is now an accompaniment to scientific observation within exact sciences such as botany, optics, chemistry, geography, and astronomy, among others, that are built upon naturalistic and laboratory observations. The year 1839, officially recognized as the year when photography was invented, also witnessed the publication of the Diary of Darwin Beagle and of the continued issuing of August Comte's "Positive Science" (1832-40). As indicated by Samuel Rodhie, the directed observed, and visually challenged conventions threatened speculations with natural science, thereby having a disruptive impact on modern knowledge (Batchen, 1997).

Consequently, photography surfaces within public space in the form of a precious instrument for the scientific brain, within an era witnessing inventions like gas, electricity, the railways, the telegraph, the telephone, to name only a few which greatly influenced urban life. Further, photography assumes a detective role, offering comprehensive details, moved largely by the notion of inventory. The above notion closely resembles some remarks on photography that may be traced back to the very beginning. For instance, photography was perceived to be a privileged way of "disciplining" everyday experiences. It attempted to group, illustrate, name, and fix. It functioned as a beneficial tool in social surveillance and inventory, as long-established by multiple researchers.

Goffman and Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty

In Goffman's (1979) view, the visual images contained within ads possess implicit messages which impact a person's self-concepts, one's perceptions of wrong and right, how one conceives of leading a great life, and the way one affirms one's identity. Besides influencing one's insights into what being human means, visual representations may influence social resource allotment as well as meanings ascribed to civil rights and public policy (Rose, 2007). As the images within marketing communication govern one's grasp of our world (which includes individual and place identity) (Borgerson & Schroeder, 2005), a study, on the part of researchers, of how physical disabilities and females are portrayed in advertisements, is crucial. Researchers have historically focused on the representation of the disabled and females as individual analytical units.

As dismembered assessment spots, as part of Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, the female body was projected as a thing to scrutinize and alter. According to Garland-Thomson (2009), a viewer will stop to stare when facing novelty. The photos' crisp, apparently untouched style stuck out against the predominant marketing media. The undisciplined, unchanged female body was new to mainstream media (Garland-Thomson, 2009). Hence, viewers were both encouraged to stare on account of the photos' novelty as well as invited for doing so through questions situated by the model. Besides objectifying the female body through soliciting viewer scrutiny, this campaign converted the female body into a thing that viewers would utilize for navigating their website. The Real Women Have Real Curves page on the site, for instance, indicated that viewers ought to "meet the women, read their stories, and see their beautiful curves." These words had below them pictures of half a dozen practically naked women posing beside each other. To learn more about any given model, her family, views, and career, all a viewer had to do was click on her photo. The females were made into objects for staring at and navigating the website.

The Campaign mentioned above for Real Beauty proved to be the foremost in a succession of "Real Women Have Curves" ads that promoted the skin firming cream/lotion by Dove. The ads portrayed females between 22 and 96 years of age, dressed in nothing but a stark white bra and underwear (Hoggard, 2005). The pictures were displayed throughout urban markets around the world on billboards, TV spots, and in magazines. In every ad, the focus was a single physical characteristic deemed traditionally to be a flaw in women (e.g., small breasts, freckles on the skin, or being short). Beside the woman's picture was a question posed to the viewer. The picture of the female having small breasts, for instance, asked, "Does sexiness depend on how full your cups are?" Another ad featuring a somewhat overweight female asked, "Fat? Fabulous? Can true beauty only squeeze into size 8?" (Lagnado, 2004).

Researchers discovered that pictures of the female body typically depict idealized feminine beauty — tall, skinny, young, and long-legged (Garland-Thomson, 2009). Besides establishing an ideal, normal, standard feminine body type, ads end up creating both self-imposed and other expectations that females ought to work to attain such a body. But the above standards are almost impossible to achieve. For instance, according to Kilbourne's 1999 report, twenty years earlier, models weighed roughly 8 percent lesser than average women, a figure that rose to 23 percent in 1999. The researcher thus concluded her report stating cultural conditions continued to be increasingly less favorable when it came to diverse female bodies.

According to Kilbourne (1998), advertising is to blame for several gender-specific issues like lack of self-esteem and eating disorders, a claim that is backed by empirical research. For example, Harrison (2003) demonstrated that the more the reported TV viewership of college-aged females, the skinnier their hips and waist were. Likewise, Lavine, Wagner, and Sweeney (1999) discovered that adult females who saw ads on TV portraying females as sexual objects displayed a greater discrepancy between preferred and actual body size as compared to those with no ad exposure or with exposure to only nonsexist ads.

A major point to remember is that females aren't merely passive media consumers (Hall, 1982). The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty conveyed mixed messages to the global female population. However, it also offered them resources that taught them critical media consumption and urged them to deliberate on the subject of beauty and related challenges, support each other, and challenge age-old standards. In contrast, this Campaign did introduce novel images akin to those utilized within the present analysis. It still failed to represent the physically disabled female population.