Tara Wray is a photographer, curator, and documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on issues of mental health and the ambivalence of family ties. In 2018, she started the Too Tired Project, a nonprofit photo initiative committed to helping people with depression. In less than one year, the Too Tired Project has received more than 15,000 submissions from 16,000 followers on Instagram and hosted multiple live exhibitions via their traveling Slideshow Exhibition Series. Here, she discusses what inspires her, the future plans of the Too Tired Project, and how anxiety and depression connect to her work.

Where are you based?

I was born in Kansas, but I now live in rural Vermont.

 What are your areas of artistic practice?

I’m a photographer, curator, and documentary filmmaker. My work is autobiographical in nature and focuses on issues of mental health and the ambivalence of family ties. I make art to understand the world around me and to define my place within it.

Tell us about the Too Tired Project and your other current projects.

I started the Too Tired Project after the release of my photobook, Too Tired for Sunshine (Yoffy Press, 2018). The book features pictures made over a period of seven years in response to my own struggles with anxiety and depression; it received a surprisingly large outpouring of support from other photographers and artists, in particular from those who had had similar experiences with mental health issues and were using photography as a means to cope. People began sharing their own stories and work with me and I realized there was a need for a safe, inclusive place where this could be done on a wider scale. The project took off quickly from there.

The Too Tired Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit photo initiative committed to helping people struggling with depression by offering a place for collective creative expression. Since its inception on Instagram in August 2018, we have invited all interested photographers to share personal images and stories related to depression by using the hashtag #TooTiredProject. To date, we’ve received more than 15,000 submissions from 16,000 followers. In addition to being a place for fine art photography, the Too Tired Project is a place where people can advocate for and connect with one another around the topic of depression and mental wellness. Recent press includes VICE, NPR, HuffPost, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, and Vogue Polska.

We also host live exhibitions that bring people out from behind their cameras and computers to share their work (pertaining to depression and mental wellness) via our traveling Slideshow Exhibition Series. We present work that has been submitted to an open call specific to each city where the event is being held and do a five minute slideshow presentation, followed by a discussion with several featured photographers, gallerists, and/or mental health professionals. The public is invited to come free of charge and are encouraged to take part in a question and answer session with the panel and each other.

Recent shows have been held in: Santa Fe, New Mexico; Canton, New York; Chicago, Illinois; Warsaw, Poland (at the Leica Gallery, in conjunction with the US Embassy Warsaw); Brattleboro, Vermont; and Melbourne, Australia. A forthcoming exhibition is scheduled in Indianapolis, Indiana in September 2019, and we’re working on organizing a three-city Slideshow tour of the United Kingdom in early 2020. In total, we have shown the work of nearly 1000 photographers. (We encourage people interested in bringing an exhibition to their city to reach out directly to us.)

In addition, we’re editing our first photobook, which ultimately will be crowd-sourced from submissions to the Too Tired Project; it will be published by Yoffy Press in 2020. The Too Tired Project Book, which I’ll be editing, will document life with depression as seen through the eyes of around 50 diverse artists from around the world. All submissions to the Too Tired Project Instagram are in consideration for the book, and we aim to publish a regular series of Too Tired Project Books in the years to come.

Who or what is currently inspiring you in your artistic pursuits?

I often find things in the everyday that move me to record them. Having my camera at the ready is the most reliable source of inspiration, gives me purpose and a sense of well-being.

How does disability influence your work?

I’ve dealt with anxiety and depression most of my life, and while I haven’t previously thought of it as a disability, it is something that I take medication to combat and that I confront every day. If I get to a point where I’m struggling, I’ll look at adjusting my medication. I’ll look at how I’m eating or if I’m exercising or sleeping. I look at all these things constantly; it’s like spinning plates on a stick, you’re always monitoring things to make sure it doesn’t all come crashing down. I’m 40-years-old so I know a little better when I’m dipping and what to look for and how to head it off. It’s just an awareness. It’s a mindfulness—a lot like making photos—you focus your energy and pay attention to your surroundings, what you’re feeling, what you see, and how the world around you is responding. It’s the same as dealing with mental health for me. I have days when I don’t take out my camera just as I have days when I don’t want to get out of bed. It’s all part of the same continuum.

Having my camera gives me something to do with my hands and gives me a reason to be somewhere that I wouldn’t be otherwise. It helps me feel less awkward because I can focus on the camera and making work. Photography is a vitally important piece of my life — a channel through which I can direct my emotions into art.

What advice would you share with emerging artists with disabilities?

I would give all emerging artists the same advice, whether they have a disability or not, which is to channel your hardships and struggles into your work, whatever the medium, and to tell your story. The more personal the work is, the more universal it becomes. The things in our lives that challenge us are what shape our worldview and give us our voice, and make us unique. The act of making art has the potential to turn the darkness, fear, or loneliness into a strength, to reveal something about ourselves, to start a conversation, and to feel liberated. That’s what I hope to accomplish when I’m making work, and it’s what inspires me in the work of others. The more you’re able to share, the more powerful the work will be.

Follow Tara on Instagram and Twitter @tara_wray, and at www.tarawray.net. Follow the Too Tired Project on Instagram and Facebook @tootiredproject, and at www.tootiredproject.com.