Photography & Depression

Depression is a serious illness which shouldn’t be taken for granted. The first time I got interested in writing something about how to cope with such a situation through the means of photography was in 2015. Back in those days, I was part of a photography collective in my country. We gathered every week and shared photos for discussion, the usual feedback-related stuff with mandatory beers; of course. But one day, my inner social scientist was caught by the following statement:

I gave up alcoholism for photography; my camera saved my life.

After hearing these powerful words, I came to realise that photography was indeed good for coping with everyday life. It offers a creative outlet, it helps us to develop a slow-paced interest in our surroundings and it even forces us to get out from the comfort of our homes.

Given this, I dug deeper into the idea that photography can help us deal with mental obscurities like depression. To achieve this goal, I posed academia the question “What does science say about this?”; so I skimmed some papers and came to an interesting conclusion I share next.

What does science say about photography and depression?

Individual experiences of depression are commonly defined as enclosed and lonely; void of any new experiences or…