As you may know if you know me IRL or follow my social media posts, I love photographs. I love taking them. I love looking at them. I love editing them. I love posting them. Today, in thinking about some photos I recently took and in looking at a book on Polaroid photography I just bought, I was wondering about the neuropsychology of photos: What happens in our brain when we look at pictures, and how does this impact how we feel and think about them?

According to a blog post by Scientific American, people all over the world, regardless of cultural differences on how they see the world, experience a similar neuropsychological process when viewing scenes, and when looking at photos. The brain has different areas for visual processing: At the middle of the back of the head is the most primitive visual processing center, which identifies simple forms like lines and the vertical, horizontal, and diagonal edges of contrasting shapes. Other brain regions put together the basic visual forms and also process motion and color. The brain’s orienting network selects important, behaviorally relevant information from all that we see, hear, and touch. This helps us to pay attention to some sights (and other stimuli) while ignoring or paying less attention to others (to adaptively see what may be important to our survival and well-being and to avoid sensory overload).

So, our brains are wired to pay more attention to some visual stimuli. Science tells us that we are visually drawn to scenes with dense lines; busy, criss-crossing lines; and bold, bright, or contrasting colors. From an aesthetic perspective, we often enjoy images containing symmetry, as well as those with a triangular composition of lines and elements. This is one reason why some photographs appear “good,” and others don’t. There are other reasons, of course. But there are certain patterns and colors that are more pleasing to the eye, and this is largely based on neuroscience.

On the most basic level, photography is a way to document a sight. But many amateur and most professional photographers hope to capture more than simple documentation: Many wish to create something beautiful, memorable, or thought provoking. From an artistic standpoint, how “good” a picture is depends on factors such as technical perfection (e.g., color, sharpness, exposure), composition (e.g., pleasing layout, adheres to conventional rules of composition), and impact (e.g., novelty, beauty, shock value). The emotional and psychological impact of a photo may come from the subject but can also come from our brain’s reaction to beauty (or to horror, pathos, etc.).

I could go on about this topic, but several others have “said it better” than I feel I could, so I refer you to several blog posts by photographer and neuropsychologist Adam Brocket: “The Neuroscience Behind Vision, Photography, and Cameras” and “How Photography Impacts the Psychology of Attention and Visual Processing.” I will also include some famous and beautiful photos for your viewing enjoyment. You’re welcome!