Beating burnout: photographers on maintaining mental wellbeing

Photography can be stressful and even anxiety-inducing. Whether you're shooting photojournalism or advertising, weddings or sports, you're under pressure to deliver standout images on deadline. Long days or months spent travelling, often alone, perhaps covering harrowing stories, can be draining. Add to this the financially precarious nature of freelance work – something many felt acutely in the wake of Covid-19 – and it's clear why many freelance photographers burn out.

"If I don't take care of my mental health, I can't do my job effectively," says Anastasia Taylor-Lind, a London-based photojournalist and TED Fellow who has covered conflicts around the world for international media outlets and NGOs. "Without self-awareness and some level of emotional and mental stability, we're not able to process and retell other people's stories."

To tie in with World Mental Health Day, Canon's Shutter Stories podcast featured a discussion about stress and anxiety with host Lucy Hedges and photographers Anastasia and Tasneem Alsultan, a Saudi-based documentary photographer focusing on human rights and social issues for The New York Times and National Geographic. Here, they swap experiences and discuss coping mechanisms for dealing with burnout, and reveal their hopes – heading for a more compassionate, caring image industry.

Hear more of the conversation in this episode of Canon's Shutter Stories podcast:

Anastasia's experience was similar. "When the pandemic started, all of the assignments that I had lined up for the following few months were either cancelled or put on hold," she says. "I had to ask myself the really difficult question, which is: if I'm not a photographer, who am I?

"And of course being a photographer isn't just about going out and making pictures, there's so much other work to do. So in the beginning I was working on my tax returns, updating my website, doing admin to occupy myself and also trying to find small pleasures. I ride horses, I take care of my brother's puppy, I go for long walks, do yoga and just try to be present."

Is the industry getting better at looking after its freelance photographers?

"I am optimistic and I do see change slowly but surely in our industry," says Anastasia. "The myth of the photographer, and specifically the war photographer, as the tragic hero is the prevailing myth inside our industry. We celebrate risk-taking, and we idealise and glamorise this idea that, as artists, we have to suffer for our craft. As the industry shifts away from these traditional narratives and becomes more diverse, I see more openness. The more I say: 'These are the things I struggle with,' the more I hear people saying: 'So do I.'

"In 2017, I covered the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh. I was sent by Human Rights Watch to document and record the stories of massacre survivors inside the refugee camps," Anastasia adds. "And when I came back, for the first time in my professional life, I was offered a debriefing session with a counsellor. It reminded me how careful I have to be to take care of myself – but also how important it is to take care of myself in the service of being a photographer. It's a professional obligation as well as a personal one."

What advice would you give to photographers or videographers who are struggling?

"Understand that you're not alone," says Tasneem. "It's OK to reach out and share some of the vulnerability that you have, because so many people will appreciate that and they will reach out to you. We don't have to follow the steps of people before us, if it's not always great and correct. We can rectify that. Especially during this time, I think it's really important to stay humble."

"Exercise," says Anastasia. "Use your body to heal, quiet and help your mind. For some people that might be running or going for long walks or another kind of sport, something that engages you physically and possibly not intellectually, because a lot of being a photographer is in your head and thinking about things as well as seeing them."

Is there anything you wish you'd done differently in the past?

"Speak to a therapist earlier," says Tasneem. "In my culture it's really frowned upon to state that you have emotional issues. It's something that people feel ashamed about."

"The change I want to see," says Anastasia, "is not leaving young photographers to figure this stuff out for themselves, but creating a nurturing, caring and kind photography community, so that the risk-taking and harmful behaviour that the generations before us engaged in when they experienced stress and trauma are not encouraged or handed on to the next generation."