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Photos of the Client
Photos of Clients Taken by Other People
Photos
of pe ople,
taken by others, let them see the many different ways that
other people see them (as well as how they look to themselves
when not reversed in a mirror!). Being photographed can
also provide an opportunity for social interaction based
upon being the focus of attention from others (which may
or may not be comfortable or desired!).
People
rarely take the time to consider how they unconsciously
visually communicate information about themselves to those
viewing them (or their photos), yet many of these "silent
messages" directly influence how others will know them.
People are frequently surprised to see, in a photograph
of themselves, quite a different "self" than what they had
presumed would appear there!
Photos
of a person are taken either spontaneously without their
knowledge
or else while they are aware the camera is there. If aware
they are  being
photographed, they can choose whether or not to change
their
behavior in response to the camera's "eye" watching them.
Of course, they could still try to let it catch them "unaware",
but the simple difference of knowing they are being watched
will always alter the seeming naturalness of the situation,
just because of the additional layer of knowing that the
photographer-observer is present...
If  the
person is aware of the camera and poses themselves for
it,
then what gets photographed is their "posing behavior" (how
they hope to appear in the finished picture). If the person
is instead posed by that photographer, then the resulting
photo will end up being the photographer's version of that
person and the results measured in terms of the photographer's
goals (rather than the subject's). Either way, the visual
message a person thinks they are communicating to their
photographer may very well not be the same as what
ultimately appears in the finished photo.
However,
if the person is photographed while completely unaware of
being photographed, then an altogether different "person" is
captured than in the first two kinds of photos above. Who
the person is while just being who they are ordinarily,
when not being watched, can provide a good contrast for
further study.
Therefore,
it could be very interesting for people to compare posed
with un-posed photos of themselves, as well as photos of
them taken by a variety of different photographers, in order
to see how each photographer's images (perceptions) of them
differ -- and what this might say about the different relationships
they have with each photographer involved. It also might
be worth exploring how a person would alter their usual
behavior, appearance, or body language if suddenly aware
that someone is photographing them.
How This Technique Works
In
contrast
with self-portrait PhotoTherapy techniques, where clients
work with photos they make of themselves without
outside intervention, this technique involves photos of
clients where someone other than themselves made most of
the choices about when, where, how, why or even if
they are to be photographed -- with the client having much
less control over the results, even when posing for that
photographer.
Since
viewing other people's photos of them gives clients an
idea of how
they present themselves to the world, having the chance
to actually dialogue with others about these photographs
can give clients valuable clues about how congruent their
self-perceptions (and intended visual communication of self-image)
are with those visual messages actually received by others
viewing or photographing them.
This
can be a less threatening channel for receiving interpersonal  feedback
than if given directly face-to-face, because the different
personal images being compared are more safely at "arm's
length". When clients start to realize how differently several
people photograph the "real" them, they can begin to appreciate
the fuller flexibility of their personal identity and thus
the wider range of possibilities that exist for them to
explore. This can also be a good way to repair distortions
of self-perception.
Photographs taken
of clients tangibly represent the power dynamics of the
personal relationships between them as the "subject"
and the photographer whose gaze through the lens has made
them the object of attention (willingly or not). "Subject"
and "object" become terms containing multiple meanings when
one person "takes" another by having their picture and
thus some power over them.
As a result
of these dynamics, it can be very beneficial to probe which
picture taken of a client they feel is most "truthful" about
them (which photographer best knows their "real" self),
as well as comparing photos taken of them with self-portrait
images made by themselves alone. Who a client permits
to keep photographs of themselves signals who they most
trust with a part of themselves, even if only in symbolic
form. Who they choose to be photographed together with
(and how) also crystallizes a lot of information about their
relationship (and degrees of comfort or trust) with these
people.
Clients can
be asked to bring with them already-existing photos of
them, especially those that they strongly like or dislike,
which could be used to illustrate their life story, or
those
which show aspects of themselves different from those the
therapist might be observing during counseling sessions.
Photos of them alone can be compared with photos of them
in the company of others, and spontaneously-taken snapshots
with more formally-posed ones. Those taken in professional
portrait studios can be studied not only "as is", but
also, if desired, re-made anew to explore any changes
as therapy
progresses.
Clients
can also be assigned to have new pictures taken of themselves,
such as one by each of their friends or family members,
and then again to be photographed together with each
of these people individually. Examining and contrasting
the various results can trigger a lot of previously-unconscious
information, secrets or stories useful for the therapy process.
Or, as other
examples* of photo-assignments possible with this technique,
the therapist could also instruct the client to have people
photograph them: "In their favorite place", "As others think
they look best (or worst)", "While they're feeling good",
"While they're doing something they enjoy (or dislike) doing",
"While they don't know they are being photographed", "While
they seem to be in different moods", and so forth.
* These questions are
samples given only to illustrate the kinds that therapists
might ask clients when using this technique. Feel free
to try them out yourself with your own personal photos,
but unless you are professionally trained in counseling,
please do not use them with other people, as the results
could be harmful.
• • •
As with the
other four PhotoTherapy techniques, photos of the client
can be worked with either on their own or in combination
with other kinds of client photographs, as well as in combination
with expressive arts media and other appropriated imagery
for additional therapeutic enhancement.
See examples,
more photos illustrating this technique,
and personal anecdotes sent in
by visitors to this site.
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An Example
(Taken from PhotoTherapy
Techniques -- Exploring the Secrets of Personal Snapshots
and Family Albums)
When
asked to find some photographs of herself as a child, one
client selected this image of a toddler seated on a chair,
holding a teddy bear. Though it was not taken of herself,
she said it could easily have been a picture of her at that
age. She had been commenting for weeks about how uncomfortable
she felt when being photographed by others, and that even
when she wanted to have her picture taken for her own self-promotional
business purposes, she inevitably stiffened at the last
moment and experienced vague feelings of fear or anxiety
when confronted by a camera lens.
She kept
expressing concern for the child's well-being, saying it
appeared "endangered", so her therapist asked her to talk
with it for a while. Then she was asked if she was willing
to try to "become" that child inside her mind, to emotionally
move into that image. She agreed, and put herself into
as
close to the same pose and body language as possible. After
letting her sit there in silence at first so that she could
feel the emotional space she had put herself in, the therapist
then began to question her as if she actually were
that child:
"How old
are you?", she was asked. "Two," she replied immediately.
"What is happening right now?" "Someone is taking my picture,"
she replied with a quavering tone in her voice. "Can you
tell me more about that?" "He's big and tall and has a
camera pointed right at me, and -- oh, it's going to hurt..."
Continuing
this process of being that child, she revealed the assumption
that "that man" who was taking her picture was to be feared
and avoided. After more dialogue, the therapist brought
her back into the present time, making sure that she also
consciously carried along the memory of the dialogue which
had just taken place a few minutes earlier.
As
co-investigators, they tried to find out why that inner
association had formed
between the feeling and the photo-posing. The therapist
asked her to re-connect with that child's feelings and
think
whether she could remember any time in her own life when
she had herself also had those same kind of feelings.
She
suddenly remembered that her mother had told her that
in her early
childhood she was so cute that she had been selected as
by one of those baby-calendar companies to be used as
one
of their models for illustrating their pages (where the
child was photographed making funny faces and then later
captions were added to complete the joke the face was
supposedly
signaling a response to).
But one day
her mother discovered that, in order to produce these unusual
faces, the photographers (all men) routinely physically
and emotionally abused the children, by doing things like
sticking pins in them near their diapers or armpits (where
the wounds wouldn't be noticeable), as well as teasing them,
offering toys or candy kept just out of reach, and so forth,
in order to get those "cute" animated faces. So her mother
refused to let this continue and never took her back there
again.
Thus,
in the client's earliest memory long before she ever
had words
to communicate about such a experience, a strong negative
emotion had been permanently bonded to the unconscious
memory
of having a camera pointed at her. This memory was so strong
that it still existed inside her thirty years later,
and
it had remained so painfully unvalidated and unresolved
that it had never before become conscious enough to be
therapeutically
processed and worked through to removing its power on her
adult life.
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More Photos
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Personal Anecdotes*
* If you want to submit your own personal
anecdote to this page, send it to the PhotoTherapy
Centre for consideration.
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PhotoTherapy
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