What has photography ever done for me?
End Piece
Untitled
I started writing this end-piece when I was only halfway through my lockdown-project, because the answer had become abundantly clear:
What has photography ever done for me?
It makes me happy and healthy – mentally healthy.
I found that every area of photography that I looked into encourages and fosters my wellbeing, whether it is in my woodland walks with the camera; church visits; photo editing; writing for this website (this project particularly and the earlier one, ‘Engineer to Artist’); photography courses and workshops; art history; Julia’s mentoring. Each one creates an environment in which I can feel challenged, and feel I can rise to the challenge – I can be ‘in the zone’.
Then there is all the diverse background reading I’d done on the hidden life of trees, the ways of seeing, eyesight, the passage of time, art therapy, green therapy, bird therapy, even tulip mania! And other pleasures too. Sending images away for printing and waiting for their return like a little kid at Christmas. Then the unexpected but palpable sense of wellbeing as I hang the prints on the wall – most recently, woodland images replacing cityscapes.
It explains how I can wake up in the morning with photographic ideas in my head, excited, motivated (I started writing this at 5:40 am!)
Photography makes me happy and healthy.
Priceless.