As you probably know, Louie Schwartzberg is a nature photographer who has moved into the spa world in a big way. His images are beautiful. Many of them spectacularly so. Schwartzberg allows us to see nature as we haven’t seen her before. Nature you can’t see any other way. It’s art. Beautiful art. I’ve even heard in spas that these photos are more than art: They’re healing! So why should that make me nervous?
When it comes to healing, I don’t think we can replace nature or even a window into nature with imagery—no matter how beautiful.
Because I don’t think photographs and videos are literally healing. One study I recall of patients in hospital rooms found that a window to the outside helps patients heal faster. But a nature video—even a beautiful video—healed no better than staring at a painting or even a blank wall. Schwartzberg’s art was not part of the study, but when it comes to healing, I don’t think we can replace nature or even a window into nature with imagery—no matter how beautiful.
I’m not going to argue with the cascading water of a spa wall or a forest of indoor plants. These are real in ways that imagery isn’t. And I’m not going to argue with art therapy or creating beautiful spaces with art. And I’m not even going to argue with hanging Schwartzberg’s photos or videos as fine art. That’s what they are. Just don’t confuse any imagery with a healing window into nature.
Stephen Kiesling
Stephen Kiesling is a writer and editor whose career was launched in 1982 with the classic rowing book The Shell Game and The New York Times Book Review, “Just as it is good that there was a riverboat pilot who could write…it is good that there is one true blue jock who can.” A Scholar of the House in philosophy at Yale, Stephen was a 1980 Olympic oarsman who also raced in the 2008 Olympic Trials. He learned journalism from T George Harris, a decorated World War II artillery scout and Time reporter who created Psychology Today. T George and Stephen launched both American Health magazine and Spirituality & Health, where Stephen continues as Editor at Large. He has written for the New Yorker, Sports Illustrated and Outside, was a spokesman for Nike, started a celebrated rowing club, and has built parks and playgrounds. He lives at Ti’lomikh Falls on the Rogue River in southern Oregon, where he writes for his wife Mary Bemis at Insidersguidetospas.com. Stephen is also the caretaker of one of America’s oldest Salmon Ceremonies and is working on a whitewater park and sculpture garden. He is interested in transformational retreats, anything to do with water, the Native American origins of our democracy, and the process of becoming what he calls an Earth-Indigenous Elder, a person who knows their own story from the beginning of time.