Sarah Sovereign

I've always been fascinated by the connections between things, how we can hold the thread of one thing while acknowledging other threads. Grief and joy are that way for me - there are so many moments in my life where I've found joy, even in deep, deep grief. I have two projects right now that I'm very slowly working around, one is "Grief Houses", documenting the spaces left behind by those who have passed, a concept I thought of after experiencing the sudden loss of 3 immediate family members in 3 years. "Sourcing Joy" is the unofficial companion of Grief Houses, telling stories of people engaging with joy. -- In the midst of death we are in life, both truths exist simultaneously and powerfully.

As a teenager I moved in with my grandmother who had Alzheimer's - there's something about being faced with the fragility of memory and agency in that way, of seeing someone you love, who was a caretaker, change day by day and look to you for care. It was a gift in a way that she gave me, the connection that I'd feel when we'd sit at her kitchen table with tea and talk about people in photographs, this gift where I could see who she was and who she had been and we could meet in the middle of both truths with love, grief, compassion. All these ideas wove themselves into my art practice and photography was such a natural outlet for me to turn to - there's a sort of therapy in documenting how you see and feel the world and sharing those stories with others. This lead me into a space where I explore narrative photography - there is so much power in images, I find I turn to them the most when words just aren't enough to express the shape of everything I'm feeling.