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Photo Challenge

State of Mind

This week, let your inner world and the outside one converge in a photo.

Photos show us the surface of things, but they often tell much deeper stories about the objects they depict — and about the people who take them.

Read more of Danielle’s thoughts on the therapeutic powers of photography in her Discover conversation with Michelle Weber.

Earlier this week, I was struck by the words of Danielle Hark, founder of the Broken Lights Collective photography project:

You can often tell my mood state just by looking at an image I took during that period of time.

It resonated with me even more when I started looking through my photo library, trying to gauge my state of mind at the time I took a particular picture, and seeing how often and how closely the images and my mood aligned. Take this one, for example:

hazy

I was on my way home one recent afternoon when I felt compelled to stop by a wet, empty sports field blanketed with mist at the edges, where it met the forest. I look at the photo now, and immediately remember my fatigue and slow-moving brain after a long day, but also a sense of comfort and softness at the knowledge that home was just minutes away. It felt like standing in front of a huge, grass-and-gravel Mark Rothko canvas, with its distinct layers of focus and haze, casualness and intention.

Every photo we take says something about our emotions at the moment of taking it. So this week, share an image where you see a particularly strong connection between what we see and what you felt as you pressed that shutter button on your camera or phone.

I look forward to seeing your photos!

For more on photography and how it channels our inner life, head to Discover for our feature on Broken Lights Collective.

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    2. Hello again — having checked with our team, it turns out that your theme determines whether or not your blog name appears above the post title in the pingback grid. Unfortunately there’s no way to tweak this on our end or yours, since this is something that takes place on the theme level.

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