TOO TIRED PROJECT presents: #TooTiredVermont
Artist Talk w/ Photographer Tara Wray • Panel Discussion on Art as a Therapeutic Tool • #TooTiredVermont Pop-Up Slideshow Exhibition
Sunday, May 19th, 2019, 6:30 to 8:30pm
7:45 to 8:30pm: Panel Discussion on “Art as a Therapeutic Tool” w/ Q&A • Including:Tara Wray, Photographer (Woodstock, VT) • Jonathan Schechner, Photographer (Burlington, VT) • Dana Stirling, Photographer (Queens, NY) • Eli Burke, LICSW / Art Therapist (Brattleboro, VT)
The Vermont Center for Photography is pleased to welcome photographer, filmmaker, and founder of the Too Tired Project, Tara Wray, for an artist talk, slideshow exhibition, and panel discussion about the use of photography as a therapeutic tool to combat depression. The goal of the event is to bring people out from behind their computer screens and together in real life to share photography made in response to depression in order to open a dialogue about the subject and reduce associated stigma.
The Too Tired Project is a non-profit photographic initiative that offers a place for collective creative expression for photographers who struggle with depression. The Project began after the release of founder Tara Wray’s photobook “Too Tired for Sunshine” (Yoffy Press, 2018), which documented her personal experiences with depression and anxiety, illustrating the beauty, darkness, and absurdity of everyday life. Soon after the book’s release photographers started contacting her to share their own work made under similar circumstances. Soon after, she realized there wasn’t an outlet for people to connect around the combined topics of photography and depression, so she launched the Project on Instagram in August 2018. The response has been overwhelming: the Project quickly gained 16,000 followers and more than 12,000 online submissions and has recently been featured on NPR, Huff Post, and Polish Vogue. Slideshow exhibitions, which feature talks with photographers, art therapists, and relevant experts, have been held in three US cities, as well as one international show at the Leica Gallery in Warsaw, Poland.
It’s free to submit and free to attend. All are welcome.
Questions? Feel free to email VCP at info@vcphoto.org or Tara Wray at tara@tarawray.net – we hope you’ll join us for this eventful evening celebrating the powers of photography!
About Tara:
Tara Wray is a photographer based in rural Vermont. Her photobook, “Too Tired for Sunshine,” was published by Yoffy Press in 2018. Recently she founded the Too Tired Project, a non-profit photo initiative helping those struggling with depression by offering a platform for collective creative expression. Born and raised in Kansas, Wray graduated from NYU where she studied documentary filmmaking. She is director of two feature length documentaries: “Manhattan, Kansas” (2006, played at SXSW and Film Society of Lincoln Center) and “Cartoon College” (2012, played at Newport Beach Film Festival).
