May is Mental Health Month

On paper, photography looks like a bad coping strategy. You take a heavy thing with you out the door, walk around, and come back with the same weight plus some pictures. But it works. Everyone who shoots knows this, and we tend to give the same reasons: it distracts you, it gives you something to do, it gets you out of the house. All true. But all surface. What I think is really happening is more important: photography creates room in your head. Beach near Arisaig, 14th July 2006 11PM Think about the claustrophobia of a problem that has taken over. Everything you think about runs into it. Your mind is a small room stuffed with furniture. You cannot find a corner without bumping into it. Now pick up a camera and go outside. The first thing you notice is that you have to look at things that are not your problem. A distraction fills the space with noise. Photography fills the space with structure. You frame. You wait for the light. You decide what to include and what to leave out. Each…