Photography Has Helped My Mental Health

In my early and late teens I messed around with the idea of pursuing photography as a career but it was not my time back then. I went to college for three years and studied psychology with a minor in criminal justice. In the beginning of my third year of college I was extremely depressed and I felt lost. As time went on my depression got worse, and I was struggling to find myself. I decided to take a leave from school, and picked up my mothers camera again. I was slowly finding myself again.

Photography is my form of meditation

I found my self bringing my camera everywhere. When I wasn't capturing the emotions of people, I was capturing the beautiful world around me (landscapes and street photography). I have found myself spending hours in the streets at night in my hometown to capture the perfect street shot. We're all glued to our phones, including myself, but every time I'm out pressing the shutter button I don't get lost in my thoughts. I'm so focused on creating new art that all of the negative thoughts I encounter disappear. When I photograph people, landscapes, and street photography it brings a sense of happiness and positivity in my life. The more photos I take, the happier I am.

There are days when I don't want to photograph

Although photography has helped my mental heath and push my negative thoughts away sometimes it can be stressful. As a small business owner you have to manage your website/social media pages, constantly market online/around town, edit client images, create galleries, and push print sales. It can be mentally draining, and overwhelming to keep up with by yourself. I constantly have to take mental health days to recharge. This is why I tell all of my clients it takes about two weeks to receive their gallery because I am managing my business, editing clients images that were taken before them. On days where I don't feel like capturing people, I turn to landscapes and street photography to calm my thoughts down and bring a little bit of excitement and happiness back in my life.

I have created my best images when I'm not in a good head space. I hope you enjoy these images as much as I loved capturing them.

This image was taken at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, CT. I could not sleep because my negative thoughts were keeping me up. The only way I knew how to make it stop was to get in my car and capture the sunrise. I was at my lowest point mentally this day. While I set my tripod and camera up in the water a ladybug landed on me and stayed there for an hour while I captured these images. I took that as a sign, I was meant to be there that day. Prints are available here https://briannamariephotos.pic-time.com/art

This image was captured down the road from my house. I woke up this day and didn't feel any emotions. I laid in bed all day long, and only left my room to use the bathroom. This was one of my worst mental days I've had. I waited all day for the darkness of the sky to come around to capture this image. I had no idea what I was going to capture this day, I just kept telling myself when I see it I'll know. Prints are available here https://briannamariephotos.pic-time.com/art

This concept came to me while I was at a low point mentally, just like the rest of my images I shared above. I wanted to capture the beauty of implied nudity without the model being nude. I took an old bathing suit, and hot glued flowers and leaves on the entire swimsuit to give the illusion that the model was nude. I don't have prints available of this image xoxo sorry :(

Thank you so much for reading! Please sign up to join my community to be notified when I post my next blog. I appreciate every single person who takes the time to read and digest the information I share. It means a lot knowing other creatives can relate and learn from my mistakes. I want to know how you cope with your struggles through photography, leave a comment below :)