The Image As A Therapeutic Tool

About the potential of photography in the process of overcoming trauma

Photography can help going through traumatic experiences and support healing processes. As an accompanying procedure and ritual, creating images can document a timeline of events, emotional conflicts or behaviors. Working with these images during the process and afterwards can give a new point of view on ones own reality.
I will give two examples of how to look at the use of photography in connection to traumatic experiences. As the photographer themself, being connected to the issue and using the camera as a tool. As well as the protagonist during a traumatic time and later confrontation with the traumatic experience afterwards.  

Firstly, as a photographer involved in an emotional story, by capturing something that they are closely attached to without being the protagonist themselves.

The Danish photographer Lasse Bak Mejlvang photographed his wife for two years while she was going through breast cancer. His series “Sleeping With Ghosts” shows analog black and white pictures of the time his wife Sofie got diagnosed up until her body was cancer free. They have two children together, half a year and three years old at the time of diagnose. I have met Lasse for an interview and he has shared his experience being a husband, father and photographer capturing this challenging time and the use of photography as his anchor.

For Lasse, taking photos of Sofie in the early stages after the diagnosis was a way of coping with the situation. He always took photos of his wife, she was used to being photographed by him all the time. The initial intention was not to document the entire journey but to focus on specific moments for personal comfort.

© Lasse Bak Mejlvang 

One of the first pictures in the series shows Sofie laying in a PET machine for an upcoming scan of her body. The situation in the room was very tense, says Lasse. “Asking the nurse to take a picture of Sofie in the machine felt so off, that it almost added a spark of humor.” Having the camera as a distraction and a task made him forget about the circumstances to a degree. He describes the camera as a protection from the overwhelming emotions.
A year after the diagnosis and the start of his photographic documentation, Lasse decided to add his own thoughts to the images and give the project another perspective. “Will the children be traumatized by this time? It frightens me. I wonder how much they understand what is happening.” Is written next to a picture of his little son playing football in the garden. The big shadow of Lasse is centered on the grass. It is one of the photos in the series where the photographer’s presence is shown. Through reflections in mirrors or windows, and the direct look of Sofie or the children into the camera it becomes visible, that next to being the photographer, he is also part of the story. His role between father, husband and photographer becomes fluid.

© Lasse Bak Mejlvang 

These photos will have an impact on his children, Lasse says. They will start looking at the pictures in a different way, the older they get. “Hopefully it will help them understand a period of a life we were all a part of.” When it comes to himself, Lasse tells that looking at the pictures make him remember how bad this time was for Sofie. “You forget how sick she was. Sometimes I look back at them and remind myself to be patient with her. It’s a good thing to revisit them often. You tend to forget that she is still very much in it.”
With the series, Lasse Bak Mejlvang has created a visualization of a traumatizing time for his wife and a challenging time for his whole family. Getting to look back at the images from the photographers point of view as individuals and together, is a valuable collection of memories for his whole family. Returning to these images, it takes Lasse back to that time and influences his behavior and healing process nowadays by remembering through details in his photography. Taking the camera and documenting the process of going through a lifechanging time has helped Lasse cope with his emotions and having a task, an anchor to hold onto, during uncertain times.

 Secondly, a different photographic view can be used for processing trauma through the documentation and reflection afterwards.

 Here, the focus lies on the protagonist during a traumatic event or time, being photographed by someone else. The focus lies on the perception of photographs by the protagonist, showing a different perspective than their own, and the effects of visualizing and confronting physical pain and inner conflicts. For this example, I chose a personal project in which I photographed my friend Olivia, who has had decided to get an abortion. The images were taken in Australia, where medication abortion can be carried out up until the ninth week. Through taking pills, Olivia ended her pregnancy. Weeks after the painful and traumatizing event, she confronted herself with the images by hanging them in her apartment and working emotionally with them by adding thoughts and drawings for over a month.

Deciding she wants to be photographed during her most vulnerable state, her feelings of fear went hand in hand with the feelings of great strength and empowerment, she reports. Her wishes and expectations for the photographic process were that it did not add more stress to the situation. During the abortion, which took 48 hours, Olivias perception of her reality was influenced by pain and the medication. Looking back, she felt like she was outside her body, and that her body and mind ‘shut down’ in a sense, she reports.

Olivia has a fever after taking the abortion pills. Her partner Craig is with her through the whole process.
© Anna Mensing

After a few weeks of mental distress and suicidal thoughts, connected to the event of the abortion, Olivia decided to confront herself with the images. She hung the pictures on a wall in her apartment and sat with them every day. “Looking at the photos afterwards brought a feeling of realness back to the experience and allowed me to look from the outside at something that happened to me.” She says. It helped her overcoming hard feelings and desensitizing herself from the trauma. She even developed a sense of comfort about the project. Looking at the images while eating breakfast for example, gave her a deeper understanding of the woman she was seeing, even though it was herself. It also enabled her embarrassment to see her body in a vulnerable state.
She denied my question, weather she is sometimes still looking at the photos. She is comfortable with the images but does not feel the desire to revisit them. “I am happy to move on and allow the project to be an experience others have.” The abortion still has an impact on Olivias life and the images did not heal or delete her trauma. Though, having photographs as a new perspective on what has happened to her gave her the chance to step away from her own perception and to reflect in a new way.

Olivia standing in front of the printed images, showing herself during the abortion process. 
© Anna Mensing

Although the procedure and circumstances were very different in these examples, it shows that there lies potential in using the medium photography in reflecting on and working with challenging life situations. Photography offers the chance to detach from ones own personal trauma and can lead to archive new realisations in order to move past from it. Through photography we express, visualize and create. We remember, reflect and learn. Photography does not heal any wounds, but it can be used as a guiding tool in the healing process.