Photo Therapy
By Jeff Loope
15 February 2008
Inspiration can be found in many ways. People can inspire you through the positive, or negative, impact that they have upon your life. Images can inspire you, and send your creative juices into full throttle. And then there are the experiences in your life that inspire you. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Everything that happens to you, happens for a reason. The path that you choose to take in an effort to deal with these experiences is your choice.
On the morning of March 12, 2007, a 1:20 AM telephone call disrupted my already restless slumber, and an hour later, had sent my life into a tailspin. The first words that I heard were, "there is something wrong with your dad, he's not breathing". One hour later, the words, that still ring vividly in my ears, were "I'm sorry, he didn't make it." Anger, grief, helplessness, and despair overwhelmed me, but I needed to comfort those around me, and somehow, find the strength to break the news to his loved ones. Slumped in a dark hallway outside of the chapel at the hospital, I tried to wake myself up, and the reality that I was settling into was a dark one.
Moving forward from this point was difficult, and that is where photography intervened. I have always had a difficult time verbalizing my emotions, but I have never had difficulty expressing them through photography. Everyone wanted to talk, but I just wanted to go to a place where I couldn't be found. A place other than where I was, mentally and emotionally. I realized that the only way to get away from the emotional hell that I was experiencing, was to bring the hell into being, to show people how I was feeling. Thus began the Pathway Project, also dubbed the 4507 Project, which represents the year of my dad's birth, and the year of his death. I picked up my camera, and dealt with my loss. I dealt with my feelings. I was able to bring the places where I was going mentally, into reality, on paper. When I view the images that I have created, they conjure up feelings of fear, and they remind me of a painful place in my mind that will not be fading away for a long time. With the 1 year anniversary of his death on the horizon, I continue to utilize photography as my chosen therapy, and it has allowed me to open up, and verbalize my emotions.
Sometimes, even the darkest moments in our lives can inspire, and that inspiration can generate meaningful, thought provoking imagery that can sometimes communicate your emotions more clearly than words ever can. Powerful imagery can speak volumes.
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