Sourcing Joy | Photo Project | Chilliwack Photographer

A frame from the “How We Self Care” series with Brenna Vink, 2019

I've been thinking a lot lately about how much I loved my "How We Self Care" series in 2019. Following people sharing stories around how they cared for themselves was beautiful and soothing and I loved every single moment of documenting these sweet lives living, even while recognizing that self care exists within a privileged space - it's not accessible to all. Between dealing with illness and then the pandemic, along with questions that were rising up for me around accessibility and the term "self care", this project kind of fell to the wayside. 

I've been thinking a lot lately about the term "glimmers", it's kind of in the neurodivergent wheelhouse - instead of focusing on problems, focus on the glimmers - what shines, what invites, what works. Joy feels this way to me - I think, maybe especially as a neurodivergent person, that I look at joy in these layered ways. I feel joy when I look outside and see a storm rolling in, the wind picking up, the leaves on the trees swaying. I feel joy when I connect with other humans and make art with them. When I see a great wildflower patch. When I get into flow. When I can be cozy, piled up with blankets, watching terribly good scary movies on my couch. When I'm photographing something that just feels like MAGIC with every button click. The list goes on and on and on. In the same way that you can train your brain to look for glimmers, the same can be said for joy - the more you look for it, the more you find it, the more space you make for it - even when joy itself can be complex and sometimes challenging to source. 

This new photo project focuses on that, on joy and how we find it. Sometimes we make it. Sometimes we engage with it. Sometimes it stumbles across us, flies through us, in a random moment of the day. 

I'm looking to create a series of photo essays this July onwards around sourcing joy - what brings you joy? What feels joyful? These will be photographed at a go with the flow pace and work best around a process or activity - something that can be documented in a number of frames. Submit your idea through the website here. I'll respond to every submission, whether or not it's been chosen, within one week so check your junk mail! If you don't hear back from me reach out again as I won't have received it.

This project is open to all - LGBTQia2s+ welcome. If you’ve participated in How We Self Care, 24 Stories, or other photo projects you’re absolutely welcome to participate with this as well. This project is also very attuned to accessibility - please let me know how I can support you & assist with any potential barriers around participation.

The project is free to participate, you can support this and projects like it by becoming a patron.

How We Self Care: Re-evaluating the Project

Model: Katrina Barson at Recraft Retreat

I started this project a few months ago wanting to connect with narratives of how women “should” self care, and how self care has become an industry, a commodity, and a distraction. I say this all knowing that accessing & allowing self care can be a privilege - and it can also be challenging. The gift we give ourselves when we show self-compassion, kindness, rest, is beautiful, but at times, it can be difficult to believe our minds, spirits, and bodies worthy of it. We are worthy of self care.

I felt that the industry was directed at women, and wanted to get away from the “marketed self care” narrative, but in doing this I think I actually fed into another narrative - the one that suggests that self care is for women only and/or that men don’t need/shouldn’t want to access care/mental health support. I 100% do not believe this, and I think it’s so important to have a platform for all genders to share the ways in which they give themselves love, compassion, care, and support. We need to have a wider conversation about what mental health & care looks like for all - and so with that recognition, I’m opening up this project to all genders/identities. However you identify, I welcome you to come and share your story.

Thus far I’ve been asking people on a case by case basis as I’ve had time to take on shooting - I’ve been attempting a bit of a balance because I tend to open sign ups and then bulldoze through, running off adrenaline, insomnia and coffee - and that seems like a real strange approach to take when we’re talking about caring for ourselves. It’s something I’ve been working on for myself - as part of my own self care. I may not have room to organize shoots for everyone who reaches out, but I welcome your stories, and if you’re comfortable, may look at sharing them as text based Instagram stories. I’ve also been considering adding these on as purchasable sessions - portrait sessions that explore our processes of care. I’d love to hear feedback on this!

Excited to share more of these stories - thank you to all of you who have created with me so far.

-Sarah

(re)craft retreat | create + collaborate | a creatives' weekend retreat in Trapp Lake, B.C.

I’m so excited to share with all of you that I’ll be running a small, laid back retreat! The weekend is about exploring the collaborative, creative process and reconnecting, recharging, and refocusing. Formerly known as the Creative Recharge & Refocusing Festival, (re)craft will be running for 3 days filled with a mix of photographers, models, makeup & hair artists, as well as people engaging with fabric arts, writing, drawing, meditative singing, smudging, and dancing.

This weekend is meant to be a space to create, collab, and take many a well-deserved nap.

Follow along on instagram through the weekend: @sarahsovereign

This first weekend is a pilot group - engaging with the collaborative process is one of the best ways I know how to learn, and I learn by doing - so just jumping in and then taking all the info and reflecting, constructively building, and seeing everything unfold is very much how I create - and really what the weekend is all about. Unspooling. Letting. Unfolding.

Here’s our mission statement: to gather in a safe & supportive space and engage with the creative, collaborative spirit, reflecting on why and how we create while exploring & reconnecting with the artistic processes that set our hearts on fire. allowing our creative selves to journey and experience the unfolding of new ideas, directions, and immersive conversations, both with others and within ourselves: to make art, for us, with one another, beyond the boundaries of mere survival.