Can Photography Teach Us to See the World Differently?

As many of you know, I love photography. There are few things I enjoy more than grabbing my camera, going exploring. and then sharing those photos with everyone.

I’ve always thought of photography as being part love, and part my way of protecting myself from my dissociative past. After all, my childhood, and some of my adult years, include some chunks of time that I do not remember at all, so why wouldn’t I get in the habit of documenting the things I see.

But, it’s also more than that, and this article really puts it into words that I haven’t really thought about:

Taking pictures helps us to really see things as they genuinely are (so does drawing). Taking pictures helps us to take a closer look, which we normally don’t do. To examine and study an object or a person. Because as photojournalist Dorothea Lange said, “A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera.”

 

Taking pictures also is a powerful way to practice gratitude. To remind ourselves of the wonder that surrounds us.

 

“Even on the hardest of days, the beauty of the world can pull me back. I can literally see the world through a different lens—one that honors the miraculous,” writes Andrea Scher in issue 2 of Bella Grace magazine.

I think there’s a lot to be said for the fact that walking around with a camera, of any sorts, and looking for something to take a photo of, teaches us to look for positive, beautiful things all around us. There’s no doubt that our outlook on life is impacted by that in a positive way.

So, maybe when we’re all feeling run down, or negative, we could all grab a cell phone or whatever camera we have with us, and see what there is to take a photograph of. Look for the lovely thing that is right in front of us.

Do you find photography to be helpful, or any other sort of artistic expression? Tell us about it!