Every image we consume, consciously or not, leaves a mark on us. Impossible to avert our gaze, imagery is force-fed to us at every turn— brighter and more enticing. Hyper-retouched, sexually gratuitous, highly addictive content is served up by the second. We surrender to its omnipresence, from the street to the most intimate of settings— lying awake at night, face awash with cold blue light, thumbs twitching involuntarily.

Our appetite for imagery is insatiable and our tolerance to its effect is heightening. We crave an increasingly bigger hit to feel the same dopamine rush we once experienced when absorbing a single visual. One hundred, two hundred images fly by in minutes as our bloodshot eyes struggle to focus.

The power of imagery is undeniable. Images are responsible for how we perceive and experience the world. They can shape how we feel. A sole photograph can bring a smile to the lips of the most pessimistic among us, can sway the stubborn, awaken the apathetic, and bring light to otherwise over-shadowed narratives. Our own photographs allow us to share our story, connect with total strangers, download and playback our fondest memories. But when this medium is hijacked by people who abuse its power, images can be used against us to sell us products we don’t want or need by lowering our self-esteem and hypnotizing us to exist in a constant state of self-comparison and self-scrutiny.

As much as we may try to collect and curate to make sense of all the imagery around us, it’s easy to forget that we live in a semi-virtual reality where you can’t always believe your eyes. The spread of visual misinformation can infect our minds and cloud us with negative thoughts and emotions. This is especially dangerous at times when we lack control over the imagery that surrounds us.

In On Photography (1977), Susan Sontag wrote: “Needing to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted. Industrial societies turn their citizens into image-junkies; it is the most irresistible form of mental pollution.” Look at us today, over forty years on from the time this book was written— addicted to our smartphones, consuming thousands of images a day, craving cyber-love like candy. Totally ignorant to the possible side-effects our binge consumption may incur.

Exposure to thousands of images daily can leave us feeling hollow, anxious, or inadequate, and the apps we consume imagery on aren’t designed with moderation in mind. Rates of anxiety and depression in young people have risen 70% in the last 25 years. Social media is being discussed in parliament and referred to as “this generation’s smoking.” Collectively, we must admit we have a problem. It’s time to open our eyes to the importance of what we see.

This is why I decided to start Visual Diet with my co-founder Marine Tanguy (MTArt Agency) and my agency (M&C Saatchi). We wanted to address the link between imagery and mental health, as it felt like no one else was. Our mission, starting out, was to improve the visibility of meaningful visual content and to increase the amount of art in public spaces. But this mission has grown: we want to challenge the advertising industry and big companies to clean up our visual landscape and take responsibility for the visual fast-food diet that they are feeding us. On an individual level, we hope to empower people to take control over what they see, particularly online, and stop gorging on overly-processed, body and mind-negative visuals. As individuals, we have the power to shape new norms of visual consumption. The power is literally in our hands and it’s our decision what happens next.

It is a truth widely recognized that art stimulates our minds and improves mental wellbeing. This truth has formed the basis of alternative therapies for almost 100 years and is increasingly being used as a means of social prescribing for patients of mental health disorders. As humans, we need visual nourishment in our day-to-day lives. A recent study by MTArt saw an 84% increase in wellbeing when people were surrounded by meaningful visuals in their daily environment. It’s not just about advertising appearing less frequently, but art appearing more. We need to subvert the stereotype of art as a preserve of the elite and look at it not simply as culture but as something that nurtures our minds and helps us feel good, too. 

The internet, having seeped into every pore of society, is one of the newer mediums for art. As I write this, photographs, art, and even architecture is being created to fit within the constraints of a tiled grid or 5” screen. Terence Koh once said that “art is the only power capable of destroying the internet.” I’m not sure I quite buy this, but I do believe that art is key to making the internet a nicer place. A space for sharing inspiration and information, not a vehicle for messages of hate nor offensive advertising. Our objective is to harness the accessibility and speed of the internet to spread messages of positivity and promote visual nourishment.

Visual Diet is looking for spokespeople in the form of visual role models to help spread our message. People like performance artist  Adelaide Damoah, who initially turned to art as a remedy for the mental health issues she faced as a consequence of suffering chronic pain from endometriosis. In the studio, Damoah combines body prints with text and found photographs to create visceral, autobiographical works of art. In her performances, she is in direct conversation with Yves Klein’s 1960 Anthropométrieseries, in which he directed the performance of a group of nude women. In contrast, the artist uses her own body as a living paintbrush, printing herself onto white surfaces, remixing the original Klein performance by virtue of her identity. Simultaneously, she encourages discussion about female representation, feminism, sexual stereotypes, and art history.

Our wish for Visual Diet is that it becomes an open-source movement, not a company co-owned by two businesses, but a shift in mentality embraced by image-makers and embedded in culture. We hope to change the way we talk about mental health and challenge the way we currently consume imagery and interact with social media. 

If you think you could be a spokesperson for the project, get in touch. We want to hear from you. If you are someone in need of visual nourishment, I recommend that you follow artists’ work and physically stand before art wherever and whenever possible. Try to find solace in tangible experiences and give in to inspiration; let it wash over you. Speak out against censorship that propagates one sole idea of beauty. Redefine beauty for yourself as something that is deeper than skin and cloth. Open your mind and get out of your head. Unfollow accounts that make you feel bad about yourself or the world around you, and follow more that make you laugh or make you think. Because if we want a more beautiful world, then let’s start with how we look at it.