Crack Up


  • Photographer
    Tiziano Caffi
  • Prize
    3rd Place / Deeper Perspective/Deeper Perspective
  • Company/Studios
    Tiziano Caffi
  • Date of Photograph
    2015
  • Technical Info
    Portrait Photography

The project develops the theme of Laughter: the most direct, easy and universal tool we own to transmit positive vibrations to the outside and transform our psychophysical mood into optimal well-being. Nowadays, scientific research have demonstrated the health benefits of laughter. It helps to get rid of negative energy, and it's also one of the most efficient means of communication between humans. Laughter therapy is a kind of treatment that show most of the powerful benefits of laughing. I organised a special session that mingled laughter therapy with the help of two instructors and photography, involving a mixed group of people from different countries. During the two hours workshop, the participants/models were given the chance to experience the immediate pleasure and benefits of laughter, its releasing power and its characteristic generation of happiness. https://vimeo.com/123312550 password: Exhibit-it “Crack up” is a series of guffaws: it shows moments of happiness and vulnerability induced by viral laughter.

Story

WHEN OUR FACE TURNS INTO A SMILE

When our face turns into a smile, it not only directly activates our brain but also that of the observer of the smile. Smiling is a strong way of connecting with other people from the point of view of neuroscience. When we watch someone smiling, the regions in our brain specialized in emotional processing activate as well. The observed smile travels through the visual cortex, somatosensory and multimodal associative regions to the emotional brain network increasing the activation in each part on the way. Therefore, when the smile pathway in our brain is already activated, it’s easier for the observer to smile as well.

The person, who initiates the contagious smile, shapes his or her worldview positively. When we watch a neutral facial expression during smiling ourselves, we interpret the neutral expression as a positive one, as a light smile. This positive elevation in our mood caused by the contraction of our facial smile muscles directly shapes the brain processes starting from the primary visual regions all the way to the more complex regions involved in emotional processing. In neuroscience, this influence of one’s inner world to the observation of the outer world is called top-down controlling.
The top-down controlling prepares the sensory system to react in a way which supports our mental state. When tuning our brain to positive emotions by smiling, we automatically perceive the world as something brighter.

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