Taking a photo each day and posting it online has multiple benefits for wellbeing, according to a study carried out by Dr. Liz Brewster of Lancaster University and Dr. Andrew Cox of the University of Sheffield, UK. The study was published in the Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine.
Photo-a-day practice has complex benefits for improving wellbeing. Image credit: SplitShire.
Dr. Brewster and Dr. Cox recorded what photos people took, what text they added and how they interacted with others on a photo-a-day website for two months.
They found that taking a daily photo improved wellbeing through: self-care, community interaction, and the potential for reminiscence.
“Photography has been quite good for me over the years because I think it forces me to look at the world again,” one participant said.
“And also there’s a postural thing. If you’re only looking down, when you’re depressed and hunched over, it encourages you to look up or at least squat down and look at something different and to stop and smell the flowers… So I find it to be a very versatile self-care technique.”
Taking a moment to be mindful, and looking for something different or unusual in the day were seen as positive well-being benefits of the practice.
“My job was a very highly stressful role… There were some days when I’d almost not stopped to breathe, you know what I mean… And just the thought: oh wait a moment, no, I’ll stop and take a photograph of this insect sitting on my computer or something. Just taking a moment is very salutary I think,” another participant said.
It also led to more exercise and gave a sense of purpose, competence and achievement.
“It encourages me out of the house sometimes when I could just sit on my backside with a cup of tea. I’ll think maybe I’ll take a walk down on to the seafront and before I know it I’m two miles along the coast.”
The online contact helped people to manage loneliness and grief as well as meeting new people with shared interests.
Several participants had taken early retirement and found that the contact established via photo-a-day replaced some of the daily office chatter that they missed.
“There’s the banter in the workshop or the office or the place where you work. And perhaps photo-a-day offers that… Because I’m having conversations with people that I would perhaps have had in the workplace.”
The online interactions created a community based on the photos and accompanying text.
“It could be a rubbish photograph but if somebody commented on it, it made it worthwhile.”
The online text was used to provide personal narratives, reminiscences, and explanations of repeated images.
“I’m ever feeling down or something it’s nice to be able to scroll back and see good memories. You know, the photos I’ve taken will have a positive memory attached to it even if it’s something as simple as I had a really lovely half an hour for lunch sitting outside and was feeling really relaxed.”
“The photo-a-day practice is an active process of meaning making, in which a new conceptualization of wellbeing emerges,” Dr. Brewster and Dr. Cox said.
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Liz Brewster & Andrew M. Cox. The daily digital practice as a form of self-care: Using photography for everyday well-being. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, published online April 7, 2018; doi: 10.1177/1363459318769465
