Jo Spence's auto-therapeutic survival strategies

The use of the camera as a therapeutic tool is now being increasingly applied within clinical practice (photo-therapy) and, by the public, is being used as a form of non-clinical therapeutic photography. The subject of the present article, the late Jo Spence, was a pioneer and advocate of this approach and worked out a number of strategies that might usefully be passed on to a younger generation. Jo Spence's work is complex and multi-sided. For this reason, this article expands on some of the categories discussed in earlier publications, placing them in their historical context, as well as adding key photographic illustrations.