Reaching adolescents through portraiture photography

Abstract

Informal photography portraits were the key to more open communication in residential treatment of disturbed adolescents. The pictures were not only an innovative shortcut to meaningful talk sessions, they became a unifying thread in the therapeutic intervention process. As staff learned how effective the pictures could be, they were used by every child to ease the treatment path and to mark emotional milestones, from entry into the center, through personal growth and change, to final separation.