Too Tired Project

My work is rooted in documentary surrealism. I’m drawn to intense natural light, small details, and use colour to evoke mood, atmosphere, and emotion. I’m compelled to document the mundane and absurd aspects of life, and animals, especially dogs.

In Too Tired for Sunshine, I present what I see, as I see it, and my struggles with depression colour that vision.

Too Tired for Sunshine

From the publisher’s description: “Drawn from daily life and wanderings, the photos explore loneliness and isolation, as seen through a lens of absurdist dark humour. Too Tired for Sunshine puts a fine point on channelling pain into creative expression. We are both witnessing the process and experiencing the result. Tara Wray takes us on a visual and emotional journey with disarming humour that lets us lean in to the sadness.”

In response to the positive outpouring of support for my book, I started the Too Tired Project, an Instagram offering a place for collective creative expression around the topic of depression and photography. Photographers are encouraged to share their stories related to mental health by tagging #tootiredproject on the Too Tired Project Instagram.

Too Tired Project

The Too Tired Project was recently invited to create a pop-up exhibition at Review Santa Fe 2018.

We had an open call for one week on Instagram, inviting interested photographers to post an image with the hashtag #tootiredsantafe and we received nearly 700 submissions.

Now the Too Tired Project aims to bring pop-up slideshows to cities across the US throughout 2019, leading up to and culminating in the release of a curated book of work selected from submissions to the Project, which will be published by Yoffy Press in 2020.

Instagram for Mental Health

Slideshows throughout the country will follow the same format for submissions: an open call via Instagram. It’s an inclusive idea. Everyone who submits to the shows in their city will be accepted in hopes that people will come out to support each other and hear inspiring stories of the power of photography to help combat depression.

The shows themselves will simply require a projector and a dark room, so they can be held just about anywhere. In each city, either myself or a local point person will moderate the show, taking questions of the audience, and making available signed copies of Too Tired for Sunshine.

Working in collaboration with Open Path Collective, a non-profit nationwide network of mental health professionals in the US dedicated to providing in-office mental health care—at a steeply reduced rate—we will provide an introduction to mental health education services for people who are interested. For more information, or if you would like to bring a slideshow to your city, I’d love to hear from you.