Photographer Suffering From Anxiety Creates Stunning Self-Portraits!😮

Have you ever suffered from anxiety?

I have. And I am certain that we all have, at some point or the other.

But imagine that it’s rooted in your personality and you are anxious most of the times. What would you do? How would you deal with it?

I wouldn’t know too! But this photographer that I am talking about has found out a solution to channel her anxiety in an amazing way!

Monica Lazăr is one of those few millions of people who struggle with anxiety. She suffers from a lot of social anxiety which makes it really difficult for her to spend time with other people and leaves her isolated.

But four years ago, Lazăr discovered an innate passion for photography, and her amazing self-portraits have changed her life ever since.

The Bucharest, Romania-based photographer says that her photos have given her a new way to communicate with others.

When asked, Lazăr says:

My first love was food photography and for more than a year, my entire free time was only about arranging food in a feminine and delicate manner. Chocolate glaze and crumbs were everywhere but it was totally worth it. I still love every food picture taken back then.

At that moment I didn’t even have the courage to think that one day I will photograph people. It all started when my dear ones asked me to take some photos of them. I might have done a good job, because since that moment, due to a large number of people requests, I hadn’t had any time to think about my fears and my photography skills evolved naturally.

If it were to describe my style, I would use words like “rich”, “feminine” and “colorful”. I use the Canon 6D with the 135mm L f/2 and the 35mm f/1.4 from Sigma Art. My portraits are taken using only natural light.

I do a lot of retouching using Photoshop. After lots of hours spent in front of my computer, I learned to express my vision using this amazing editing software. It was and it still is a self-learning process, exhausting but very rewarding.

Photography has also helped Lazăr in finding her soul mate; a man who now helps out with her self-portrait projects. He clicks the photos, and she creates the stories in them later, in Photoshop.

Lazăr adds:

Every image is an emotion I experienced, a wish, or a fear I’m dealing with. Self-portraits became that other dimension I can live in, and I’m grateful for this. I want my work to speak about courage; the courage to make something beautiful out of something painful.

Here are some more of her gorgeous self-portraits!