Monday, November 19, 2012

Photojournalistic Blogging: How Is It Therapeutic?
A Guest Post by Samantha Grippe
 
Creative collaborative blogging has recently become a popular way for ordinary people to express their feelings and gain support from an online community. Scholars agree that artistic blogging is therapeutic, but I have found that many blogs use photography as an artistic form of therapy by capturing different moments including day-to-day triumphs and disappointments, and also the most extreme tragedies and significant accomplishments.

I have chosen two blogs that perfectly demonstrate the therapeutic effects of photojournalistic blogging: Dear Photograph and Pictory. They differ in the community aspect because Dear Photograph provides an open forum where anyone can comment on submissions, while Pictory relies on the implied conversation it creates through structure.

Dear Photograph uses a collaborative blog setting to highlight the extraordinary as well as the unremarkable. The submitters find an old photograph and then return to the location where it was taken. They line the old photograph up against the original background and snap a new one. This blog was created by Taylor Jones, a young man who came across an old photograph of his brother on his third birthday, and was inspired to take a new one (NPR Staff),. Thousands of others have followed suit, posting photographs of their own along with a caption that reads “Dear photograph…” followed by a letter telling their unique story. Comments can be posted via Facebook and each entry can be reblogged onto a personal blog.

 

Dear Photograph,
Once upon a time I remember your heart was still in tact. Long ago, before the weight mattered to you, before restricting yourself from food and nourishment became an obsession, before running became a way of burning calories, before thinness was the the equivalent to happiness. You used to laugh because you meant it, you skipped around the playground without a care, sipping juice from tea party sets and stealing Oreos from the cupboard. You believed you would one day grow fairy wings and that life was full of joy from the smallest of things. Help me to fix all the broken pieces….remind me how to feel whole. What I would give to live that way once more…
Love,
Older Broken Pearl
 

The photograph above, while superficially appearing to be a simple childhood moment, is actually the embodiment of part of the submitter Pearl’s personality that she wishes she could get back. She reveals that she is now struggling with an eating disorder, and how her simple carefree childhood has turned into an obsession with the way she looks. Her fingers are visible as she holds the old photograph up to the playground, and her nail polish looks ragged, evidence that she is much more weathered than the innocent child in the original photograph. By physically holding up the representation of her younger self against the backdrop of her current life, she was able to make direct comparisons and see what she truly needs to change. Because of this photograph, many people were moved to comment and offer help and hope via Facebook. This is support for the argument posed in “Art and Design Blogs: a Socially-Wise Approach to Creativity,” which says that creative blogging is beneficial because it allows a community of people to come together and share their knowledge, insights, and gain feedback (Budge 48-49).


Dear Photograph,
This was a time when all things were picture perfect. My first prom and there stands my mom who always had my back. We were as close as a mother and daughter could be and boy were we unstoppable. She was my rock and my best friend. After I came out at age 17 everything came to a screeching halt. She was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer shortly after I told her and has since passed. Had I known then that you wouldn’t be here in a few years I would never have ruined our relationship by telling you I am a lesbian. I’m sorry. I love and miss you mom, every single day, and I will always wonder…”what if?”
Kelsey




 The above photograph posted on October 25, 2012 proves that in these communities, extreme moments are captured, and this also contributes to the therapeutic effect. The lighting in the modern backdrop is streaky and only bits of light are showing through. I think that the submitter chose this time of day because it shows the darkness she feels now in contrast to the bright spot of her life at her first prom. This significant event that was captured allowed Kelsey to reflect on her decisions, and get advice from the people who commented.
 
 
 
 
Pictory, a blog modeled after the Boston Globe’s “The Big Picture” highlights superlative and quotidian moments through photography, and proves that through the submission of these photographs, a therapeutic effect is created (Battilana). This site was created in November 2009 by graphic designer Laura Brunow Miner (Battilana). It does not offer a comments section, so the only dialogue occurring is between the submitter and Pictory, and the submitter and other submissions. Pictures and their captions are organized by the Pictory editors into showcases, but not all photos are chosen. The reward for being chosen is the prestige of being deemed worthy. This ties to the theory stated in “Examining knowledge contribution from the perspective of an online identity in blogging communities,” where it is said that by taking part in different online communities, a person’s social identity is created (Kim, Zheng, and Gupta 1762).
 

Most showcases incorporate both superlative and quotidian photographs, creating a microcosm of life by showing day-to-day events, with a few climactic moments in between. The best example of this is the showcase “Life Before Your Eyes.” It features many stories that are monumental (such as the photograph of a pregnant woman mourning the loss of her husband at war) but also more commonplace anecdotes (such as the little girl wearing her older sister’s prom dress to play in). These snapshots are strung together in a way that is touching because they are universally relatable.

The above quotes show that through telling their stories in the blogs, the contributors gained a healthier mental state and were better able to cope with certain events in their lives. This perfectly demonstrates the argument made in “The Therapeutic Value of Adolescents’ Blogging About Social–Emotional Difficulties,” which proves the emotional benefits of blogging (Kim, Zheng and Gupta).

Photojournalistic blogs highlight the highest and lowest moments of life, but also less notable occurrences, creating an accurate reflection of life in the real world. Through the process of sharing their most intimate photographs and the revealing captions that accompany them, individuals enter into a support system and feel connected to others through the common threads of their lives. This creates a therapeutic effect in the submitter’s life, as well as the lives of all who view these blogs. Check out the therapeutic effects for yourself by visiting a photojournalistic blog. Here are a few links to get you started: PostSecret, Sh** My Kids Ruined, The Big Picture, The Burning House, LoveBryan.

Works Cited




12 comments:

  1. Of these sites the only one I'm really familiar with is PostSecret, but aftyer reading your project I think I'm going to go check out some of the other ones you mentioned here. I am familiar with a site called DeviantArt (www.deviantart.com), which is a site where all forms of art are presented by community members; such as poetry, photography, paintings, sketches, etc. While the setup of the site is different and perhaps the main intent of the site is not art therapy, I think it has a similar affect, if an unintended one. I think a lot of your research applies to this site and ones like it, especially where you mention how expression in these communities allow users to express and cope with how they are feelings. I have friends who have experienced that with DeviantArt.

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    1. Thank you for sharing that website with me! I had never heard of it, and I think it is a great example of collaborative blogging. It kind of reminds me of PostSecret! I also love the community aspect of it, where people can comment directly on each work of art.
      -Sam

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  2. Just as Angela mentioned, I am also mostly unfamiliar with the websites you mentioned in your post. However, they proved very interesting! I was thinking in a different direction while reading your post...just as the websites you pointed out are in a way therapeutic to users...does shopping online have that same effect for those users? I would be more familiar with online shopping sites than the sites you mentioned, so in the back of my mind, I thought about how perhaps online shopping could have the same effect on its shoppers. Food for thought...

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    1. That's such an interesting thought! I had never considered it. Shopping is often referred to as "retail therapy," so I definitely could see a correlation in the effects. However, I think that the difference is that on the photojournalistic blogs I mentioned, people are submitting their own work to a community atmosphere in order to express themselves.
      -Sam

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  3. Interesting. I question, however, the so-called artistic choices of the photos from the first website you mentioned. Since the contributions seem to be taken by everyday people and are more open in terms of their submissions, it could very well be that the 'choice' to take a picture of a childhood memory, for example, during a darker time of day could just be a coincidence and not an active artistic decision. This could be speculation on my part, of course, as the users could very well take this all into consideration. Also, I don't think that it takes away from the cathartic effectiveness of their involvement, it was just a thread that appeared whilst I was reading, which made me wonder if it would change the argument at all.

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    1. I definitely agree that there is a good possibility that such aspects of the photography are unintentional, especially on Dear Photograph, because this site features contributions from mostly amateurs, while Pictory generally only features professional or semi-professional photographers. There is no way to prove if my speculation is correct or not, and it was purely speculation for the sake of this project.
      -Sam

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  4. I can't remember where I found it, but there was a project that involved recreating old photos with the same people in the same clothes. The picture that stood out to me had the original picture being of a woman and what appeared to be her 3 young sons. The recreated picture was of, I would assume, the same woman with her 3 sons, very much grown up, dressed in the same clothes, with the same body positions, and the same facial expressions as in the first picture. The project where people went back to places where old photographs were taken reminded me of this.

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    1. I have heard of this! I could not find the actual website for this, but I found many personal blogs where people posted recreated photos. I love the idea, and I think it could definitely have a therapeutic effect to take these types of photos.
      -Sam

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  5. I've seen the website "Dear Photograph" before online when one of my friends linked to it on her Facebook profile. It definitely is true that pictures can be therapeutic and teach us something about who we have become. I had a similar experience recently. I found a picture of myself just before I started my freshman year of high school and was amazed at how much I had grown. In a similar way to those on Dear Photograph, it was a good moment of reflection for me to see how I've changed through the years.

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    1. What a perfect example of the therapeutic effects of photography! I have definitely experienced the same thing many times, and I think it is necessary and healthy to look back at our previous selves and appreciate the growth we have experienced.
      -Sam

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  6. I really like the comparison you made between the two websites. I find it very interesting that both seemed to have similar affects on the contributors, and yet both go about sharing photos in such different ways. I got to look at "Dear Photograph" and some of those stories are truly touching. You made a strong argument for both websites, and the overall idea of photo-sharing. Nice job!

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    1. Thank you Anna! I agree that many of the stories are touching, and I often think that the effects are not just seen with the contributers, but also the community of viewers such as you and I who are moved by it!
      -Sam

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