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Photographic Therapy – A Free Photography Book – by Rolando Gomez

Photographic Therapy – a Free Photography Book – by Rolando Gomez

Rolando Gomez, well known author of several photography books, has a new site called Free Photography Books. Go there, sign up for his mailing list and you will be notified of more free photography books he puts out. His current free book is “Photographic Therapy–The Power of Photography to Help Build or Re-Build Self-Esteem“, and is available for download right now from this link.

After briefly going through it, I like what I see. There are tips for photography but the tips and the stories are more geared toward Photographic Therapy, and by that I mean therapy for the subject, through the means of photography. There are stories about women who’s husbands left them for the bridesmaid. Lame right? I think so, and this leaves the bride with a broken heart, and “emotional Baggage” that she’s going to have to deal with. What Rolando is saying here is to help people with the lens of your camera, and your lighting. Make people feel good about themselves, help them to move along in life with a better attitude about themselves and life.

In the book “Photographic Therapy”, Rolando tells some stories about people whom he has come across, and the images he has taken of them, and goes over some technique as well. He also tells about the after effects of certain photo sessions, both good and bad, and the results of how someone else can make a person feel(jealous or encouraging husband/boyfriend). Some of the techniques discussed are lighting and how you can light a person to slim them down, or to correct a physical challenge or hide a blemish.

I have always thought to myself of this as a viable way to help people, but have never seen anyone else talk about it. Until now. It’s nice to see someone put words to it and write a book about it. We as photographers have a responsibility to people to make them feel comfortable and good about themselves if we can. We have the power to make someone feel either: very self conscious and bad about themselves, or very comfortable and good about themselves. The camera, and what we represent as photographers, is a very powerful tool and for us as photographers to abuse this power is not cool.

The last sentence brings to mind the subject of GWC, or otherwise known as “Guy With Camera”. It’s a derogatory term for an amateur photographer or a person who bought a camera solely for the reason to get close to models or women. To use the persons trust as a “Photographer” to let them get close to them and take pictures. Usually Bad ones.

I want to say that the person who is the GWC isn’t necessarily a photographer, nor does the “woman” have to be a model. Usually the GWC will prey on unsuspecting women, so they can have access to nude or semi nude women. With this being said they are the people who might give photographers a bad name. So just be aware of the difference.

I had a girl who used to come shoot with me, and I think only me, who did modeling and burlesque show dancing to help herself come out of her shell. A shy girl who was soft spoken and styled hair for a living she, came to me with some ideas and wanted me to photo them for her. I did and had her come back a few more times. She eventually got married, retired the burlesque show dancing and I am not sure if she ever modeled ever again, but I am glad and lucky I was able to photo her. She was one of the best models I have ever worked with and she landed me a back cover on a well known fetish magazine called Secret Magazine. Those images I took with that model are some of my best, my favorite and most cherished images. So much so that I used them for my business cards and i always get compliments on the images.

I’m glad Rolando came out with his free book. It touches on a subject most people avoid, and it gave me the topic for this post. It reminds me of who I am and to remain humble and be careful of what I say to people.

Enjoy your week…

Darkman.