Photography As Treatment

Around December, after much agonizing and debating, I purchased a Canon A570IS for about $20 more than I originally budgeted. I originally purchased it to take pictures of figure and other drawing to upload to an online class of sorts; my phone's crappy camera was making the resolution instead of the accuracy of the drawing an issue.

Unfortunately, soon after my purchase I wiped out on the way to work and injured my knee. Being unable to work-out led to a build up of anxiety...particularly during the liminal times when my meds were still making their way to my brain...which led to an inability to sit still which pretty much axed any attempts at figure or observation drawing. Such practise requires stretches of painstaking observation and incremental work, both of which became impossible when I literally could not stop moving. Then, to add insult to injury, I started being exhausted all the time, effectively killing off the free time I had for doing the oil pastel work that had been my primary non-pharmaceutical method of boosting my serotonin.

I felt guilty about purchasing such an expensive (to me, anything that comes near $100 is expensive) camera and not using it so I started taking it with me on my walks to and from work and photographing things that caught my eye. Casual shots rapidly led to posting for advice (I frequent a forum that has a sub-forum on A/V topics) and now I have an alternative means of creating art when I cannot sit still and an online album of work.









There's something intoxicating about being able to point a small piece of machinery at something I see and, with a minor amount of fiddling, capture a perfect replica. It's like an emergency serotonin hit, a supplement to the slower serotonergic response produced by long sessions with sticky, bright oil pastels. And a wonderful substitute to the times when I am too exhausted to tackle even that.