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05/18/2022 08:30 AMObjects, landscapes, animals, and people have a state of existence mostly invisible to the non-artist. For the artistic mind, the ordinary becomes extraordinary. For Helen Pappas, the lens through which she witnesses and celebrates life is two-fold enhanced, one through the lens of her camera, the other, through the lens of autism.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, autism spectrum is a developmental condition of the brain that begins before the age of 3 and causes people to behave, communicate, and learn in ways that are different from most other people.
While some people with autism are nonverbal and need significant help with their daily lives, others have advanced conversational skills and are highly functional and independent.
People with autism may also have different ways of learning, moving, paying attention, and perceiving the world around them. In Helen’s life, she has turned her unique way of looking at the world through autism into an art form through her still-life photography.
A native of Massachusetts, Helen moved to North Haven with her family at the age of 12.
“My father found work a Yale, so that’s why we moved to Connecticut,” Helen recalls.
Getting used to a new town, new faces, and a new school provided the usual adjustment challenges associated when moving in childhood.
“What I found really challenging was the fact that I always felt very lonely,” Helen says of adjusting to her new life in Connecticut. “Most people didn’t want to be around me. I had very few friends, and it was difficult to adjust to the new towns and even the schools I attended.”
Helen’s inner light shined bright, however, despite the clouds, and with the encouragement of her family, she pushed forward, even though she found it a struggle to understand the nature of her own condition.
“In a way,” she says, “I didn’t understand what it meant to have autism.”
Helen was diagnosed with autism at age 5, but it wasn’t until after she moved to Connecticut that she began to understand her challenges and how her life compared with her peers.
“There are certain parts of my life that I will remember, [and] others I don’t,” Helen explains. “I still find it challenging to recognize social cues and remember the names or faces of people I’ve worked with.”
Helen’s challenges with autism also reach a deeper, emotional level, which she learned to overcome.
“I’ve also had difficulty managing my anxiety,” she admits, adding, “If something was confusing, I would just shut down or try to figure out the work myself.”
Despite the challenges of managing emotions and personal growth with autism, Helen recalls her earliest future career desire.
“My first dream was to become a zookeeper,” she says. “I love animals, and my zodiac is the lion. I knew I wanted to work where there were many habitats and animals to take care of.”
Once Helen graduated from North Haven High School, her sights changed, and she entered a three-year program at Hamden Transition Academy. It was there that she was introduced to photography.
“I loved art my whole life, and I knew I was a very creative person,” Helen recalls. “It was when I took a picture of a kayaker that got a ton of views” that Helen knew she had found an outlet for her artistic talents.
“My friends and teachers had told me, ‘You truly have a passion for photography,’” Helen says, adding, “They were right. I tend to view the world differently than most people.”
That difference is Helen’s artistic gift, as expressed through her Nikon digital SLR camera (and sometimes her smartphone) fixed with the one lens she uses for everything—an 18mm-200mm zoom lens—which allows her to capture subjects quickly instead of fumbling to change lenses and potentially losing the moment.
“It’s because of the support from my friends and family that I decided to turn my passion into a business,” Helen says and named her business Mistua Photography, which she notes is the word autism backward and then scrambled a bit.
Over the past decade, Helen has won awards for her work, attended camera conferences, and volunteered her photographic talents at Special Olympics events.
She also started a Facebook page called The North Haven Inclusives, which she hopes will connect with families by learning about their interests, sharing information, and using fun word games to create an inclusive community.
“I love to travel and meet new people along the way,” says Helen, which her photography allows her to do often. “I also love to get together with my friends and write creative stories. I’m actually working on a story about autism that I hope to someday turn into a film and educate people about us.”
Helen also loves to share encouraging advice, especially when prompting others to pursue their creative ambitions.
“Don’t be afraid to show people what you have to offer them,” advises Helen. “It’s your motivation wisdom and guidance that creates the light in each of us. Your light shines bright, and it will prevail. As Bob Ross [the famous painting teacher on TV] would say, ‘You create your own path.’”
And when it comes to advising future photographers, Helen says, “Start by connecting with people [who know photography] or join a [photography] club with people that share your interests.”
To see Helen’s photographic work, visit mistuaphotography.com. Helen can be reached directly by email at hpappas775@aol.com or by phone at 203-901-6904.