Photographs and COVID-19: The therapeutic quality of shared narratives and collective memory

Mainstream media photographically documented intimate and difficult moments of COVID-19 while also publishing hopeful images. These spanned from intubation, death, and facial bruising from personal protective equipment to Italians harmonizing in song and nightly balcony cheers for US health workers. At the same time, people were documenting and sharing their own experiences across social media. Past research suggests impactful photographs elicit stimuli that can slow people’s psychological recovery or offer a therapeutic quality that incites post-traumatic growth. Despite a large body of research that examines visual framing with media photographs, few studies examine the ways in which viewing photographs of disaster influences disaster survivors, and to our knowledge, no studies examine this during an unfolding trauma in a world in which the survivors themselves digitally archive the event through images. The present panel longitudinal study seeks to investigate this gap by better understanding the impact of COVID-19 photographs through employing a visual self-narrative approach and photo-elicitation interviews. Fifty-seven participants were recruited in May 2020 and 35 repeat participants were recruited in May 2021. The research examines (1) reasons people vulnerable to the pandemic may find viewing and sharing photographs important, (2) responses to shared images, and (3) changes people experience in their relationship to photographs over time. Findings suggest that participants have a drive to share their experiences and learn about others, while pandemic photographs in themselves hold more of a negative impact for the viewer as they are experiencing the pandemic, which, over time, lessens and trends toward more positive nostalgia.