By Denisia Murat
A psychologist used an interactive Get the Picture!? event to focus on the importance of photography for patients dealing with long-term conditions.
Dr Iain Williamson explained how this approach is called “participants authored fotographs” and transforms the patients into photographers for a period of time after which the pictures are sent for research.
At his interactive inaugural lecture at De Montfort University (DMU) on Tuesday (MAY21), he said the method helps a lot of patients to express their feelings including LGBTQ+ members or patients with more rare conditions such as men living with breast cancer.
“I think they give people an additional way of expressing what they are thinking, what they are feeling,” he said.
“They give people a way to introduce difficult topics and they give the researchers a way of getting into quite abstract and difficult ideas.”
Dr Williamson highlighted the value of visual methods incorporating an interactive activity.
He showed two pictures taken by patients in which they evoked their emotions which included feelings of hopelessness and abandonment.
The first picture, titled Anthony’s Boots, described a personalisation of one patient’s boots and their personal value. The patient could no longer wear them due to suffering from multiple sclerosis but the boots gave him hope.
The second picture, titled Left to Rot, portrayed a broken Christ statue representing the critical situation of another patient who said that “when you’re ill, you just sort of disappear.”
Dr Williamson said the research aims to be conducted with participants, rather than just about them, and is fully voluntary.
He explained the use of visual psychological methods is a better way of really understanding what others are feeling and is also a way in which the patients can express themselves.
“When you’re living with a difficult critical condition, learning a new skill is very rewarding,” he added.
He believes photography is a skill that captures the finest details and preserves a situation, which can help people emphasise or cope with difficult situations, and is a valuable skill that helps the future of psychological research.
