Conceptual nominee

Sometimes I cry so hard I think the tears will never stop. ​
Sometimes I feel so tired I want to lay my head down and sleep forever. ​
Sometimes I feel absolutely nothing and wonder if I will ever feel happy again.

I wrote those words when I was feeling particularly overwhelmed and vulnerable a few weeks after my husband had a stroke. No matter who we are, we all face life challenges. No matter what crisis we face, we all struggle with a range of feelings.

In the weeks and months following my husband's stroke I wasn't up to excursions with my camera, but I used my own photographic library to create images to express my feelings and help myself heal.

The images in my Stroke of Emotions series are composited self-portraits, pictures of myself inserted into situations of my own creation. The complete series consists of 15 images that range from devastation to rejuvenation. By sharing my journey with others, I hope it may help someone else deal with their own struggle through difficult times.

Sara Harley once worked as a bank manager and a dog biscuit maker but is now better known as a photographer and writer who is living on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. She splits her time between dog walking, beach walking, capturing weird and wonderful things with her camera, and touring her adopted province with her husband. If she's lucky, she gets to do all those things at the same time.

Sara has been fortunate to have her photographs exhibited in several group exhibits, including Picturing Health at Viewpoint Gallery in Halifax and Monochrome at the Dart Gallery in Dartmouth. In February 2018, Sara hosted her first solo exhibit called Roots+Wings.

Recently, six images from her Stroke of Emotions series were selected for a book called Seeing in SIXES 2018, published by Brooks Jensen & Maureen Gallagher of LensWork.

For sixteen months, Sara wrote weekly articles featuring her own photography published by the Chronicle Herald under the by-line In Focus. The articles are now available in book format through her website.

Sara continues to create photographic art and verse to illustrate a range of emotions.