"Body Out of Bounds" | Collaboration with artist Kate Fairley

"Body out of Bounds” is a black and white portrait featuring a woman surrounded by the black skeletons of trees that form a cage in the background. Her white clothing fades into the bleached sky, veiling the shape of her figure. She grips her wrist with her hand and drags herself up off of the snow-covered ground. While she has found a way to lift herself up, many of her fellow women are still trapped on their knees, pleading with the universe to help them stand.This image captures the look of amazement and disbelief that the woman feels when she has succeeded in escaping her captivity.

She surveys the world from a new perspective and feels empowered by what she sees: a place in which she can be free.

But as we often feel in life, she is overwhelmed by the possibilities and chooses to remain frozen in place, her wrist caught in her grasp, and her last tie to captivity still present. The journey has exhausted her, and her colour has faded. By freeing herself, she has fundamentally changed from the woman she used to be.

The question is: was the change for the better?

The creation of this image was a collaboration between Sarah Sovereign Photography and model Kate Fairley.

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I'm so excited to share this image created with Kate this past winter! Kate came to me last Autumn with a concept, hoping to shoot over Christmas. I, unfortunately, was super sick over Christmas with just about everything going around Chilliwack, so we had to cancel our shoot, and she went back to school out of town. 

However, after our February snowstorm shenanigans, Kate got stuck in Chilliwack a couple extra days, and we were able to finally get together and make this shoot happen! 

Here are a few extra images from our shoot that we chose not to use for the artist statement. You can check out Kate's photography work here. 

If you have a concept or a story you want to tell, I would absolutely love to work with you on it. Give me a shout via the contact form.

Wild Mountain | Chilliwack | with Inhale Floral Designs, Montana's Bridal Hair, and Joelle Marks (Family Management)

This day was cold, and awesome. I pretty much drove into the ditch, but I pulled myself out (through strength of will and only small, well hidden moments of panic) and the sky was blue and perfect and Chilliwack Lake was like a storybook winter wonderland. It was freezing. Like, it was really really cold, which makes model Joelle even more of a champ - she braved that cold in a dress and fur blanket and never complained once. 

We shot quick, we shot cold, and I feel really lucky to live in this lovely place surrounded by such awesome creative people.

Beautiful floral creations by the talented Haley Marks for Inhale Floral Designs 

Hair (I am in love with that braid) by Montana Bullied (Montana's Bridal Hair) 

Model: Joelle Marks from Family Management 

Assisted by super champ Audra Coton, and Utah Jack

Year in Review, in 2017

I was sick through most of this December, which really didn't stop me from running to the mountains to shoot in freezing conditions, driving into snow-covered ditches (no tiny Versa Notes were hurt in the process), or eating no less than 4 Christmas dinners. However, it did mean that I crashed pretty hard after Christmas and came down with the flu through New Year's. Jamie and I changed our plans to spend the night in Vancouver, and instead we stayed home and watched terrible/awesome sci-fi movies like Space Hunter. (It was awesome, even if I was sick.) 

My New Year's resolution is to find more time for what I love, and to make my space a happier one. At the end of November I wrote 6 papers (everyone I know has heard this fact many times and are super sick of it, but I keep repeating it because I WROTE SIX PAPERS.) and ended up spending a lot of time in my tiny office between writing and editing. Let me tell you: my office is a mess. I did that semester-end thing that people do where I basically let everything go, let things stay where they've dropped, and as a result this office is now a cluttered, dysfunctional mess. Fast forward to today, where I went and bought an amazing mid-century dresser, which I plan to use to dress up this space, along with some Cathy Terepocki / Kilnhouse planters and new wall prints (pictures to come, it's now officially my Sunday plan). 

Back to those six papers I wrote though, one of them was on the use of visual language in dementia patients and it was SO interesting. Thinking about communication in terms of visual language is fascinating anyways, because I think art can convey the inexpressible, help us create visual aids to convey meaning and emotion without confining us to words. This is also something I've been trying to bring into my own work as well: moments over poses. I want to capture those candid, beautiful silences that exist in between our words. 

So 2016. It was a year, hey? I did a lot of travelling this year, which is surprising considering I didn't plan on going anywhere. Instead, I ended up road tripping to Fort St. John with Brittany, then through the prairies with my Mama, and down to Iowa with Jamie to see my BFF Crystal get married in a tiny, darling American town. 

I spent time with my cousins, I saw an elk chilling on the side of the road, I sang Eagles' songs at the top of my lungs down lonely BC highways, drove through my second set of funnel clouds in Alberta, ate a hot dog wrapped in a donut (nope.), and visited the lonely empty school I attended as an awkward preteen. 

My brother got engaged! I did another year of my Masters. I started my internship. I made the cover of Louden Singletree. And I shot almost every single day. 

Thank you to everyone who chose me to capture your memories this year. I photographed my last few weddings, and I couldn't have asked for more fabulous couples. My friend Jen and I got to shoot together (which is always awesome), I photographed proud mamas, babies, families, couples, artists, and beautiful, fabulous women.

Thank you everyone for trusting me with your stories. 

Here's to a fabulous 2017. 

Fall Goodness | Chilliwack Portrait Photographer

These were taken just a couple days ago, because FALL IS HERE. 

Models: Elizabeth Mary Seaman, and Dylaina Gollub