I was recently invited to contribute to a special issue for ‘Photographers Companion’, China’s leading photography magazine.

It features three photographers that all utilise their artistic practice as a form of therapy – myself, my best mate and artistic twin, Arrayah Loynd, and Chinese landscape photographer, Zuo Hong. Arrayah was invited independently to myself but I love the synchronistic way our work always ends up side by side. There is also a written contribution by Yang Bo, Vice Chairperson of the Women’s Health and Development Professional Committee of the Chinese Psychological Health Association. 

The magazine showcases work from multiple series over the last couple of years for both Arrayah and myself. The interviews have been translated into Chinese so we are unable to read the contributions of Zuo Hong and Yang Bo but below is the transcript of my interview in English.

Thank you Rain and the team at Photographers Companion.

INTERVIEW; Photography as Therapy.

RAIN: When did you become interested in photography and want to become a photographer?  

LISA: I first became interested in photography in high school, where I developed a passion for the darkroom. This led me to pursue a Bachelor of Photography at art school. However, the technical aspects of the course were overwhelming for me. In my early twenties, I wasn't inclined to follow all the rules. It took me a long time to return to photography, but now that I have, I draw on the skills I learned back then in my current approach to taking photographs.

RAIN: What does choosing photography as a method of expression mean to you?  

LISA: Photographic expression has become my love language and means everything to me! Creating art has become the means to make sense of my thoughts; it’s helped me process the various challenges life presents. It’s helped me to feel seen in the world, as well as shy away from being seen! It forms the basis of my deepest friendships, for which I am eternally grateful.

RAIN: You mentioned that the 'For Parts Not Working' series is really a therapeutic exercise, created as a tribute to your brain. Could you please elaborate on the story behind it?

LISA: When I put my first series, Through My Child’s Eyes, out into the world, something happened - I began to heal! I think the near-death experiences and traumatic memories wrapped up in that body of work became recontextualised through the creative process and were integrated into my long-term memory. I thought this was brilliantly clever of my brain and wanted to see if it could do it again with more of my life traumas, so For PartsNot Working was born as a therapeutic exercise more than anything else.Creating the artwork for that series has also been profoundly healing.

RAIN: What special meanings or thoughts lie behind the textile traces and underwater photographs featured in ‘For Parts Not Working’?  

LISA: The textile element represents hospital vital signs monitors. I have stared at these screens many times during my time spent in oncology and in the hospital. I have been revived twice with the defibrillator when my vitals returned a ‘code blue,’ and I’ve since developed a kind of fascination with them, being such a critical element of hospital life (excuse the pun).

The underwater photographs metaphorically represent the inside of my brain. All the noise is depicted by the floating particles in the water, and if you delve deep enough, you’ll find the suitcase - the place I keep my ‘emotional baggage,’ where my traumatic experiences have accumulated. It’s a place I have dissociated from in order to keep the other parts of me safe. Interestingly, I only came to understand this network following a bike accident. It was the experience of living with concussion, which came with a temporary inability to talk, that made me become aware of how it all worked. This was the inspiration behind the series.

RAIN: Your child's artwork appears frequently in both ‘Through My Child's Eyes’ and ‘For Parts Not Working’. How do you connect your photographic works with his creations? Could you please share with us the creative process?  

LISA: Creating digital collages and working in mixed media to include my children’s artwork is not something I’ve consciously set out to do. I have a mental image of what I want to create and utilise everything on my hard drive to tell that story. The question of authorship is interesting and somethingI’ve given a lot of thought to myself.

In my series Through My Child’s Eyes, half the photographs were originally taken by my five-year-old. However, they were a collaboration initiated by me, so you could call them assisted self-portraits.I then used these images as a base to build upon, taking the images far from the place they originated in this process. That said, I tried to keep the child-like perspective in how the photographs were originally framed.

In the series For Parts Not Working, I have utilised collages originally created by my five-year-old. Again, these were initiated by me - I have a background in Early Childhood and love to collaborate with children. But ultimately, I provided the materials and led the creative process. It's taken me a while, but I have reached a place where I feel very comfortable saying the artwork is authentically mine, as without me, it wouldn’t exist in any form.

RAIN: What role did photography play in your recovery process?  

LISA: Photography as art therapy has been the most accessible, affordable and efficient form of recovery for me. Creating art is the most effective wayfor my brain to process the biggest and smallest of life’s challenges. It’s both my medication and my meditation.

RAIN: How do you view photography therapy?  

LISA: I think photography therapy is a powerful means of self-exploration and healing. It has the capacity to allow individuals to connect with themselves and others in meaningful ways. Sharing photographs fosters relationships and builds community, reducing the feelings of isolation and self-doubt which tend to creep in for many of the creatives I know.

RAIN: How has your deep exchange with the artist Arrayah Loynd influenced your artistic creation? Which other photographers or artists have inspired you?  

LISA: Gosh, where to begin? In discovering Arrayah, I feel I have found the other half of my brain that’s been missing my whole life. I realise that must sound strange, but there’s an unusual twin-like quality to our friendship. I get the same dopamine hit from the work she creates as I do from my own!

She often shares her ‘work in progress’ with me, andI can tell when it’s not quite there yet. I can offer feedback and perspective without the fatigue that comes from having created it myself, and vice versa.It’s an invaluable resource in relation to our art practices and a real comfort to know we can be held up by each other when we need to be.

Other people who inspire me are Julian Kingma, who is the god of black and white film; Niki Boon, for her storytelling abilities; Simon Murphy and his Govanhill project; Mclean Stevenson, for his emotive music portraits; DM Terblanche, for their grit; and Lucy Pinter, who captures small moments that have a lasting impression. The commonality between all these artists is that they work in black and white, and while I realise the work I share publicly doesn’t reflect a passion for black and white photography, I love it so much. Not a lot beats getting a roll of HP5 back from the lab, in my opinion!

RAIN: What challenges have you encountered in your photographic creation? How did you overcome them?

LISA: The challenges I face in photography have always come from within and continue to be ongoing. There was a time when I would have loved to become a photographer with clients, but as it turns out, I have too much anxiety to make that work, which led me to build an art practice instead. I now face the challenge of sharing the work I create with the world, which is something I find difficult to do. I am currently onto my third photographic series that I haven’t shared yet! Making the work doesn’t seem to be a problem, but finding the self-confidence to put it in the public realm has always been challenging for me.

RAIN: What are your creative plans for the future?  

LISA: I find myself craving using the camera, as I feel I’ve exhausted my hard drive and I would love to have a go at a planned project. Photographic artist Arrayah Loynd and I already work so closely, it seems like an obvious choice to embark on a body of work together. We are both neurodivergent and when we discuss ideas, it’s difficult to distinguish who came up with what - we just have this way of building on each other’s thoughts, as if they have been generated from the same place. The real challenge we will face will be in execution and not allowing ourselves to get distracted by our own side-projects.Thankfully we have complementary skills that would be at play in different times, so I believe we can make it happen.