Ideas worth spreading

The therapeutic value of photography

62,132 views | Ryan Pfluger • TEDxPasadena

In this deeply personal talk, photographer Ryan Pfluger shares how difficult times prompted him to take a series of road trips during which he discovered the power of photography to foster connection. Describing the tradition's unique place in our image-saturated culture, he explains how portrait photography -- even if its just self-portraiture or involves only the people in your immediate vicinity -- can help fight loneliness and bolster self-worth.

In this deeply personal talk, photographer Ryan Pfluger shares how difficult times prompted him to take a series of road trips during which he discovered the power of photography to foster connection. Describing the tradition's unique place in our image-saturated culture, he explains how portrait photography -- even if its just self-portraiture or involves only the people in your immediate vicinity -- can help fight loneliness and bolster self-worth.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxPasadena, an independent event.

Read more about TEDx.

About the speaker

Ryan Pfluger

Artist. Nomad. Empath.

Ryan Pfluger is a New York-based photographer. His photographs often deal with the subtly of body posture, the gaze, and the role of self-portraiture, as an exploration of what portraiture means in our presently-saturated culture of images. For the past year, Ryan has been driving cross-country every few months making portraits based off of geo-location apps. Some of his clients include New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, and TIME. Born and raised in New York, Ryan received his MFA in Photo, Video and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in 2007.

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This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxPasadena, an independent event.

Read more about TEDx.