Aphantasia and photography
Like everyone else, I found only recently (at 59y) about my aphantasia, which I would consider partial rather than total. I find that if I'm trying to conjure a mental image, say of my deceased mother, from living memories I come up mostly blank, but I can conjure her image much more clearly as photographs that I've taken during my life. I started my photography hobby quite young, around 11, and always thought it was a random choice of activity, but am now thinking it might have been fulfilling a deeper need, to help capture those memory images before they disappeared. Anyone else like this ?
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Rob Haines•recently•edited
I do find visual aids like photographs help me remember things. While I cannot create the visual memory in my brain, when I see something that I remember it trigger's the "omg yes, that's it!" feeling. I find that my lack of a mind's eye actually pushes me to lean even more heavily on visual aids than the average person. Especially if I am trying to communicate something complicated to someone. I always want to try and draw it out for them.
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Neal White•recently•edited
No. I can't conjure photos either. When my eyes are closed, I see black, no matter what I imagine. Looking at photos usually doesn't spark any specific memories of the event (just general info about the people and places).
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Liên Vũ Kim•recently•edited
I have the same experience as well. I only think of images of deceased family members rather than themselves exactly. I hardly had any real memory beyond photos, which is why I take photos of interesting events.
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