From darkness to light: Photographer Jason Toth uses art as a therapeutic comeback

FRESHWATER CLEVELAND

In November 2022, photographer Jason Toth was standing on the Lake Erie shore at Edgewater Park when he spotted a giant willow tree and decided to take a photo of it.

“[I could see] the lines of the branches and a lot of the leaves were gone, but it still had the muted yellow leaves,” he recalls. “There was something about the lines of the branches and the way the leaves were sitting there that invited me to take a picture.”

Toth had been diagnosed in 2019 with Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)— a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system, which controls things like blood circulation, breathing, blinking, body temperature regulation, and balance.

The diagnosis was debilitating both emotionally and physically for Toth. He had to close his successful marketing agency, saw a long-term relationship end, and became broken and lost