Photographic Psychology: Image and Psyche

John Suler's Photographic Psychology: Image and Psyche

Photographic Psychology: Image and Psyche

A psychological exploration into how people create, share, and react to images
in the age of cyberspace and digital photography

"I discovered a goldmine - Photographic Psychology: Image and Psyche" -
Richard Zakia, Professor Emeritus, Fine Art Photography Department, Rochester Institute of Technology

UNDERSTANDING PHOTOS OF PEOPLE

UNUSUAL PERCEPTIONS

EMOTION IN PHOTOS

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TRANSFORMING IMAGES

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COMPOSITION

UNDERSTANDING ONESELF THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY

About John Suler, PhD

Photographic Psychology Exhibition

Reviews & Recommended Readings

INTRODUCTION TO
PHOTOGRAPHIC PSYCHOLOGY (read me!)

PART 1 : SENSATION & PERCEPTION

The line
S-lines
The diagonal line
Psychological lines
On being sharp
Texture
Vignetting
Bokeh
Black Holes

Synesthesia
Eye to eye
The Mañana Principle
Photography Overload
Visualizing and verbalizing
Mindfulness in photography
Facial asymmetery and character
Insights from the Rorschach inkblots
The psychological impact of image streams
Photos forgotten and remembered

PART 2 : THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COMPOSITION

The big picture of composition
Camera angles
Selective color
Viewpoint
Symmetry
Diptychs
Balance
Rule of Thirds
The Golden Spiral
Square format

Cropping and the frame
Abstract photographs
Negative space
Circular compositions
Movement in photographs
Body language in photography
Geometric and organic patterns
Symbolism: What does it mean?
Dyads (two shots)

PART 3: CREATIVE CAPTURES & POST-PROCESSING

The Decisive Moment
Breaking rules
The good capture
Microexpressions
The one that got away
Get the shot right
One spot shots
Museum shoots
Drive-by photography
The golden (magic) hour
Serendipity (the happy accident)
Media transitions

Image shaping (post-processing)
Shooting clones
Instant image
Artistic voice
Head transplants
Categorizing images
Reversals
Chiaroscuro
Surreal photography
Image brainstorming
Let it grow: Turning errors into seeds
The varieties of self-portrait experiences
To delete or not to delete

photo psychology

PART 4: SHARING IMAGES ONLINE & IN-PERSON

Commenting on Photos
Finding an online niche
Creating titles for images
Image sequence
Good and bad shots
Favorite photos
Visual riffs
Image therapeutics
Image descriptions
Johari's window
Avatars and icons
Conceptual photography
Interpreting people pics
Technical and artistic photographers
The talent/popularity square dance
Online photo-sharing communities
Google+ vs Flickr
Reactions to photos: The essential questions

PART 5: PORTRAYING HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY

The Id
Inside the Psyche
Sturm und drang
Childhood trauma
Derealization
Group Conflict
Reaction Formation
Self actualization
The unconscious
The house as self
Face recognition
Gay probabilities
Deindividuation
Addiction
Immersion
Integrity versus despair
Perceived privacy
The collective unconscious
The mind as associations
A second life in virtual reality

"Emotions"...........................

emotions

Suler's Recommendations

Student Research

Suler's Research Methods

Perception and Imaging: Photography as a Way of Seeing (5th edition)

If you're enjoying this website, you'll also enjoy this fifth edition of Perception and Imaging coauthored with Richard Zakia. The book contains most of what you see here, as well as much more. It covers a comprehensive range of topics about how to create, interpret, and share photographs, with an emphasis on a psychological approach to understanding the perception and meaning of all types of images.

Some of the topics include figure/ground relationships, negative space, camera angles, gestalt grouping, memory and association, conceptual photography, the perception of time and movement, the decisive moment, color perception, black and white photography, sharpness and blur, illusions and ambiguity, subliminals, body language, how personality style affects photography, mindfulness in photography, self-portraits, how to critique photographs, photosharing in social media, therapeutic photography... and more!

The Taylor and Francis site contains additional information about the book, including a detailed table of contents.

And here's an exercise manual (pdf) to accompany the book.

IMAGES ABOUT PSYCHOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY. That link will take you to a catalog of images, some of them humorous, that portray a variety of issues concerning the psychology of social media, the internet, and technology in general. They are excellent illustrations of the ideas discussed in Perception and Imaging, especially concerning conceptual photography.

Photographic Psychology: Image and Psyche