Photography books

“A photograph is neither taken nor seized by force. It offers itself up. It is the photo that takes you. One must not take photos.” Henri Cartier-Bresson

Art can have a healing effect. Not only on the perfomer but also on the viewer. As described in my biography, the very act of making nature photos can have a profound healing effect. Walking around a beautiful meadow or looking at the bubbles and lines in a small frozen pool brings me back to my center. All trivial thoughts that occupy the mind so much vanish and I become one with my surroundings.

Photography as Meditation
By mindfully emptying ourselves of the preconceived pictures we carry in our minds' eye and opening ourselves to the infinite possibilities before us, photography becomes a form of meditation.

In order to take pictures, we must learn to be here and now, alert to the subjects that call out to us in the moment. We also learn to focus and then to connect. In choosing and composing what we shoot, in playing with light and shadow, we capture something of ourselves in the final image. At the same time, we liberate ourselves as well.

Recommended books
There are some beautiful books on photography as a healing art:

God Is At Eye Level: Photography As A Healing Art (Paperback) by Jan Phillips

The Tao of Photography: Seeing Beyond Seeing (Paperback) by Philippe L. Gross, S.I. Shapiro

Photography And The Art Of Seeing by Freeman Patterson