Photography can save your life
drawn to this produce, in a box labelled ‘ugly fruit'. ‘People are happy to give others labels and isolate them. Mental illness is very isolating.' Paul was
Gone are the days when mental health problems were assumed to beset only a troubled minority – as the latest statistics reveal, they are very common in the UK. The figures make a sobering read: according to the charity Mind, approximately one in four Britons will experience a mental health problem each year, while one in six people in England report anxiety and/or depression in any given week. Given the United Kingdom’s current population is just over 65 million, that’s a lot of suffering. While this won’t be news to a lot of readers, did you know that photography is now being seen as a valuable weapon in the battle against anxiety, depression and other mental health disorders?
Photography seems to help in several ways. First, being out with your camera taking serious photographs requires total concentration – or, to borrow the current buzzword, ‘mindfulness’. It won’t work for everyone, but being out with a tripod and camera to catch a great sunrise,
