{"id":252581,"date":"2026-01-26T15:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T15:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/252581\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T15:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T15:04:11","slug":"waterfalls-saved-me-how-photographing-nature-can-heal-the-soul-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/252581\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Waterfalls saved me\u2019: how photographing nature can heal the soul | Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"

When he first ventured out into the darkness of the Yorkshire Dales 25 years ago, John Arnison\u2019s only goal was to find a photographic style that people would immediately know was his.<\/p>\n

Driving for nearly 40 miles from his home in Leeds to Malham, North Yorkshire in the dead of night, John didn\u2019t realise that he was starting a project that would continue for another quarter of a century, and shape the rest of his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the best photographers\u2019 works have their own look, and I needed mine,\u201d said Arnison. \u201cI wanted to come up with something and I used to do caving when I was younger and I knew I could do something really striking by taking photos outside the same as they do in caves.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Arnison, who has experienced depression since he was in his early teens, what began as a challenge to find a new creative direction quickly became an escape from a world he often struggles to understand or stay afloat in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think of these photos as a balm for the soul,\u201d said Arnison. \u201cI suffered from depression ever since I started failing at school and I couldn\u2019t understand why I was failing. I didn\u2019t know what I wasn\u2019t getting that everyone else was and I just didn\u2019t understand it. I came from a very academic family and it was hard for people who were very academic to understand me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arnison was given his first camera when he was nine years old as a gift from his parents, a year before finding out he was severely dyslexic. After leaving school at 15 he was inspired by the work of newspaper photojournalists such as the Guardian\u2019s Denis Thorpe to pursue a career in pictures, beginning by working in Fleet Street darkrooms and eventually starting a darkroom of his own in Leeds, which has become a hub for a thriving community of northern photographers.<\/p>\n

Arnison has has travelled all over the north photographing waterfalls, including in Yorkshire, Teesside and Cumbria. Photograph: John Arnison<\/p>\n

\u201cI think taking pictures has kept me going, and I think the waterfalls in particular have saved me,\u201d said Arnison, who also lives with anxiety and ADHD<\/a>. \u201cI find it so healing outside. I don\u2019t always get people, I find them difficult to understand, but nature and photography are honest and straightforward. I find walking through a busy city quite worrying, but going out into the countryside at night alone, I love it. It\u2019s just me and the owls.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past decade and a half, Arnison has taken more than 150 photos, venturing alone, save for a couple of occasions that necessitated bringing a friend with a walkie-talkie to help with the more complex subjects. He has travelled all over the north photographing waterfalls, including in Yorkshire, Teesside and Cumbria, and has hopes to capture some in Scotland in the next few years.<\/p>\n

Arnison enjoys taking photographs out in the countryside at night alone. \u2018I love it. It\u2019s just me and the owls.\u2019 Photograph: John Arnison<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so cathartic at every stage, researching the waterfalls, driving to them, spending hours getting this right. It just allows me to focus on what\u2019s outside my head,\u201d Arnison says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re out in the pitch black you can\u2019t think of anything else, good or bad. You very much have to be in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

So precious to Arnison is his work that he keeps all of the negatives in a fireproof case in his home, saying that \u201cif anything happened to those, I couldn\u2019t recreate them. I could photograph them again, but it wouldn\u2019t be the same, they\u2019re so precious to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arnison would like to release a book of his waterfall photos. Photograph: John Arnison<\/p>\n

Arnison has no plans to retire, claiming that at 63 he feels the same as he did at 20, but admits that \u201cthere\u2019s going to be a time when I can\u2019t keep trampling over moors and up mounds and things in the dark by myself.\u201d He hopes to publish his work as a book, possibly accompanied by poetry from northern writers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to release a book of my photos to be honest,\u201d said Arnison. \u201cIf I could see my work in print \u2026 if anyone could look at it and take something helpful from it, then I\u2019d feel really proud. It\u2019s always been about the process of taking them for me, but if anyone could relate to them, then that would be amazing as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When he first ventured out into the darkness of the Yorkshire Dales 25 years ago, John Arnison\u2019s only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-252581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}