OCA wellbeing: Photography.

I like to have a look on the OCA student websites every now and then to read through some articles recently published.

Tonight I read a couple relating to photography. I read one entitled “OCA wellbeing: Photography” .

In the article, Edward talks about taking photo a day to update his Instagram account. This is something I have also considered. It is not something I have done though. I probably do take a photo almost every day with my phone. When I see a moment or a good photo opportunity, I pull my phone out of my pocket, and ‘snap’. Mainly these photos are of my new baby girl.

In modern society, its socially acceptable that we take photos of anything and everything. From our babies, to the food we are about to eat. From our best friends laughter, to a pretty flower. I am probably guilty of ‘over snapping’ at times. I do like to update my Instagram account often, but, I don’t like to over share personal photos and I don’t have the opportunity to take other photos every day.

However, I want to capture moments for my daughter to look back on. There will come a time when the people who surround her now, will no longer be around. For that reason, I try to get candid photos of her with people as often as I can.

Edward starts the article saying he wanted to share his photos to show that he/ they are still working, that they are “still here” for students of the OCA. By the end of the article, he describes how he was also using his photos to show his Grandma, to “reassure her that everything was okay“. Sadly he goes on to say “When she passed away I couldn’t bring myself to make the daily postings, I needed to let myself off the hook for a while”.

I think most people can probably relate to this. For all kinds of reasons, we all have to take a break sometimes. The pressure of trying to get through a degree whilst in lockdown is hard, other things come along in life too. I’ve certainly found the need – after some guilt/ stress to get my coursework on track – to “let myself off the hook for a while”.

References

Smith, E. (2020), OCA wellbeing: Photography. At: https://www.oca.ac.uk/weareoca/creative-arts/oca-wellbeing-photography/ (Accessed 16/08/20).