HOMA Psychotherapy & Counselling trainees in Year 3 complete a mindful photography assignment, reflecting on their work on Suicide, Addiction & Social Injustice.
The practice of mindfulness encourages us to pay attention to the present moment. Photography, allows us to notice the details of the world around us through a different lens. We combined these two practices as a way to invite our trainees to consider suicide, addiction and their relationship to social injustice. Through this mindful photography assignment we take the work beyond the intellectual and academic into a fully embodied experience, bringing together thoughts, emotions and sensations.
As mindful photographers, we become more present and attuned to our environment - taking in the sights, sounds, and smells as well being aware of our thinking, feeling selves. Through this observation, we begin to see the world with fresh eyes, through a different lens, capturing stories, images, memories and shapes that may not otherwise have drawn our attention.
The Mindful Photography Flipbook
Suicide, Addiction & Social Injustice
The assignment consisted of two briefs, created collaboratively by Sophie Boss and Jane Fraser, the Year 3 tutors and art psychotherapist and Homa tutor, Trupti Magecha.
This flip-book (designed and complied by Homa's Training Co-ordinator Audrey Boss), is a compilation of some of the work produced by Year 3 trainees and tutors.
You can flip though the book on the right or click HERE to see a larger version.
The Assignment - Suicide, Addiction and Social Injustice
Photograph 1 - Suicide and Social Injustice
Take a moment to be with the thoughts and feelings that come up for you as you reflect on suicide. Consider suicide in the context of social injustice. Take a walk in an unfamiliar environment - this might be a different path in a place you visit regularly or a different route to work... Allow yourself to look at the sights with a fresh perspective, with your camera. Consider what happens when you move very close to an object or how something looks when you photograph it from an angle looking up or down: consider how you may exaggerate a feature or perhaps underplay it. Work with texture, colour, light and shade. Make an image slowly carefully, responding mindfully to suicide and social injustice. Write a title and some text to support the viewer to understand the themes you are reflecting on.
Below are some of the photographs - without titles and text. Have a look through the flipbook above to read the thoughts that accompany the images.
Photograph 2 - Addiction and Social Injustice
At a different time, move around your home environment and look closely at the objects that are part of your day to day life. Take a moment to look at this space you live in which is part of your day to day, taking in what you see that perhaps you normally pass by without really noticing the details as you go about your life. Think about our conversations about addiction and what this may have touched in you. Pay attention to your thoughts and feelings as a way to respond and make an image working with something that catches your attention, even if you might not yet understand what draws you to it. Be with it for a moment before you experiment with making an image. Write a title and some text for this image to help the viewer understand a bit more about your work and your response to addiction in the context of social injustice.
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