Creative Photography

This tool was developed as part of Cultural Cwtsh, which was an online creative wellbeing hub for the health and care workforce in Wales, created by the Arts Council of Wales in collaboration with artists across the country.

In partnership with the Arts Council of Wales, we’re excited to share this mental wellbeing tool, alongside with many other creative resources, with everyone in Wales!

Hi, I’m Suzie Larke and I’m an artist and photographer based in Cardiff.

I’ve been working for the last seven years on creative photography that explores ways of expressing struggles with mental wellbeing. I use magic realism as a way of illustrating emotions that are often difficult to put into words.

Over the years I’ve found image making to be incredibly helpful in processing difficult experiences and externalising my emotions.

It’s helped me and others not only in processing such difficult experiences, but also to see them from a new perspective.

These images are then a visual representation of something you’ve worked through, which can be revisited.

With simple tasks, I’d like to take you on a journey to enable you to create you own images using creative photography.

Through my series of videos I will demonstrate simple approaches of taking photos, (or sketching) that represent emotional struggles. You don’t need to have a fancy camera to create images like this. You can achieve similar results using the camera on your phone and a free app (Adobe Photoshop Express, Picsart Photo Studio).

If you have a camera and are using a computer to edit, but don’t have Photoshop, you can download the free editing tool GIMP.

This course is about experimenting and playing with your ideas. There’s no wrong or right way of doing things. It’s all about finding ways to express your emotions.