Photography and the Medical Humanities

 From the 4/9/2021 edition of the Transformational Times

Photography and the Medical Humanities

Carlyle Chan, MD

Dr. Chan served on the AAMC Arts and Humanities Integration Committee that drafted the FRAHME (Fundamental Role of Arts and Humanities in Medical Education) report. He shares how a deeper dive into the humanities, and photography in particular, can teach physicians to be better observers and help “defy acceleration” in their lives …

“The arts teach creative means of expression, understanding of different perspectives, an awareness of knowledge and emotions throughout the human experience, and the sharing of perceptions through artistic creation and practices in the expressive world.”

“The humanities teach close reading practices as an essential tool, an appreciation for context across time and space, qualitative analysis of social structures and relationships, the importance of perspective, the capacity for empathic understanding analysis of the structure of an argument…”

-NASEM 2018

Similar to the NASEM (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine) report, the object of the AAMC FRAHME (Fundamental Role of Arts and Humanities in Medical Education) initiative was to “improve the education, practice, and well-being of physicians through deeper integrative experiences with the arts and humanities.”

Photography is a visual art that consists of many sub-categories including, but not limited to, landscape, fine art, portrait, street, food, and photojournalism.  Like other visual arts a photograph can evoke very different personal responses from each individual viewing an image.  Photographer Minor White utilizes the term Equivalence to describe this response.   In psychiatry, we might describe this as a form of transference.  That is, we bring our past experiences into our present-day life.  

For the photographer, photographs have a magical element.  In a fleeting moment, a person can preserve a scene in perpetuity.  As the saying goes, “Take a picture.  It lasts longer.”  However, the camera is not as sensitive as the human eye.  With the exception of photojournalism, adjusting an image after capturing one (a.k.a. postproduction) allows the photographer the creative freedom to better represent what was seen in the mind’s eye.  This is not unlike a painter who may add clouds and move objects to improve a scene’s composition.  Both these activities, picture taking and postproduction, are creative processes.  The former requires, among other skills, powers of observation, perspective taking, composition, and appreciation of lighting.  The latter includes the same skill sets plus technical ones to help develop the final product.  

It has been said that one way to relieve stress is to find an activity that defies acceleration.  Taking and processing photos does slow down the pace of life.  One views and studies the scene to be captured and similarly views and studies the image to be rendered.  Engaging in photography not only provides a diversion from the demands of clinical practice and a respite from life pressures, but also an outlet for creative endeavors.  Photographs are another vehicle for implementing Visual Thinking Strategies while helping avoid burnout.  Parenthetically, the best camera to have is the one you have with you, be it a professional grade SLR or one on a smartphone.  Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, photography is fun.

Carlyle Chan, MD, is Professor and Vice Chair for Professional Development and Educational Outreach in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at MCW.