I couldn’t stop thinking about my Soul Purpose. I kept thinking about those words: photography, healing, divorce. What did it all mean? What was I supposed to do about it? How would I figure out what my life was calling me to do?
The more I thought about healing and photography, the more examples I could see in my work. I remembered the first time a client cried when she saw her photos. It was a teenager. I asked her if she was OK? She smiled through the tears and said, "I never thought I was beautiful." I was stunned. She was beautiful. When she saw her images I could tell she was seeing her own beauty for the first time. The photographs captured more than her physical body – they captured her heart, and they captured her soul. The photographic images seemed to be healing her self-image.
Next, I thought of a young family that came in with a newborn. They wanted pictures of the baby and then together as a family. There was something special about the day – baby Brandon had recently been adopted. I learned as we started to talk that they had been trying for 10 years to have a child. After multiple disappointments trying to either have a child, or adopt a child, they had given up hope. One day they received a call that they had been chosen to be the parents of a beautiful little boy. As we set up the first shot of the little baby, the parents started to cry. So did I. What a sacred and priceless moment of healing in this little families’ life…captured forever with a photograph.
I started realizing the power that photography has to heal. Photography captures something real and documents it. When I captured the beauty and truth of who a person was, they could see it. When I captured the perfection of people’s live and relationships, they felt it. The photography documented what I saw. It documented the soul. It captured the heart. It connected a family. The images became a catalyst for healing.
I began to feel the power and purpose in this photo healing but I wondered about the last word - divorce. How did that fit in? What could healing photography do for marriages? What could it show couples that they weren’t already seeing? I thought about some couples I knew that were facing divorce. Many of them had lost an emotional connection with their spouse. I wondered, what if I could help a couple let go of their marital challenges long enough to re-connect to that spark of love that brought them together in the first place? If I could capture that spark of love, and they could see it in the images, what could it do for their relationship? Could these photos become a reminder of the love that they share? A documentation of a love that still exists? If people could see that love was still there in their marriage, would they be motivated to work on their relationship?
I wanted to know. I wanted to try. Could I design a photo experience specifically meant to re-kindle the love and deepen a relationship? Could photography create healing a marriage? I will tell you next time what I discovered. It was truly amazing.
For more information on Robin Johnson, visit her website! Soul Focus