Anita Chaudhuri is a feature writer for The Guardian and Psychologies magazine as well as being a visual artist exploring well-being through photography. In 2022, she graduated from the MA Photojournalism and Documentary Photography programme at the LCC, University of the Arts, London.
She will be talking to us about:
Photography and wellbeing - how can photography help us to be, in the words of Radiohead, Fitter, Happier and More Productive?
Her presentation will include three distinct but related areas:
1. Mindful photography - how to start a regular practice of using your camera as a tool for inner calm. Learning the art of paying attention and the benefit of sitting for 15 minutes without taking your camera out before a shoot, simply being in the moment. The creative upside of restriction - e.g. only allowing yourself to take 5 photos when you go to a location, or only shooting red things or in black and white.
2. Mindful photography - how having a long-term project to work on can bring greater meaning to your life. And how having micro-projects - eg shooting the view from your front room every day for a year - can improve your image-making and your mood.
3. Creating connections: She says, “Preaching to the choir a bit here I’m sure but photography is by its very nature social, something that still surprises me. Being seen with a “proper” camera is such a novelty now, people often stop and talk to me, or suggest a better shot further up the street!” Making portraits creates connections too. Sharing our work and stories online is also a fantastic way of communicating with people we might never have met otherwise. For her project migraineland, she received dozens of messages from fellow sufferers. Our images have the power to help others while pursuing something we love.
Her talk will be illustrated with images from her own projects.
She has an MA in Documentary Photography from UAL and her website is Anita Chaudhuri.