It is no secret Cole Sprouse is an amazing photographer, in addition to starring as the beloved Jughead Jones in Riverdale. Given the fact that he grew up as an actor, you may wonder how he got into photography in the first place. Turns out, it was depression and sadness that led him to finding light through his passion for photography.

Cole sat down with his friend Duan Mackenzie (who just so happens to be best friends with his bro Dylan Sprouse‘s ex-girlfriend Dayna Frazer), and the actor opened up about his journey with photography.

“I was sad, and I was in a dark place. And I turned to a hobby to sort of take me out of that,” Cole said in the sit-down interview. “I’ve been doing photography for a while – but I had really used it as an outlet, as a way to create and feel better. And it took off.”

“Most of my work took place in the landscape, and there was something profoundly serene about those landscapes,” he continued. “I had sort of used those adventures as an attempt to separate from not just the virtual world, but from a world that I felt paranoid was watching me quite a bit. In my early work, and still, that runs as probably the primary undercurrent in most of the work that I do. I am the worst critic of myself, so I look at a lot of that early stuff and see nothing but dissatisfaction in the stuff that I do. I constantly want to create and grow and eventually feel comfortable with the stuff I’m doing.”

This isn’t the only time Cole has opened up that depression is what led him to pouring out his heart through taking pictures. Last year, he spoke about it in an Instagram caption of one of his pieces of work.

He wrote, “It was depression that drove me to do it. That’s the real truth. It was depression that led me to the camera. It heals you know, a hobby. There’s no bandaid like a hobby. I’ve been destructive, I know that now. I can see that I’m in a desert, and I’ve been thinking about that oasis when I should’ve been trying to get out.”

Cole’s work is really something, and it warms our hearts to see how much it has helped him in life.

If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Youth Crisis Hotline at 1-800-448-4663

Watch: Cole Sprouse and Sabrina Carpenter Hang Out

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