My name is Sarah Sovereign and people can find me on instagram @sarahsovereign, Facebook at www.facebook.com/sarahisovereign/ and www.sarahsovereign.com - I've been a photographer in the valley for years doing family & beauty photography, as well as all the weird & wonderful creative art stuff that I love to do. I'm also a recent Masters in Counselling grad, so I'm working on finding ways to use my love of counselling, storytelling, and working with people to create safe and supported spaces for people to share their stories.
Why do you take photos?
A lot of the time I feel like I fell into photography accidentally, but when I look back I can see a really noticeable thread - I wanted to capture spaces and people, I wanted to preserve stories - even really difficult ones. I began to take photographs to make sense of my place and experience in the world. There is so much that we can learn about ourselves from the stories we carry with us, and I'm continually floored by the ways I've been able to work with my own experiences, finding ways to share them with others through visual medium. Being able to tell stories with imagery is so powerful - it's like tapping into an entire other mode of communication and connection - sometimes words are just not enough. In my role as a photographer I've been able to connect to so many people - there's a really beautiful collaborative aspect to working and photographing people, and I think that's what brings me back to photography over and over again, too, no matter who I'm working with.
What’s your favourite lens?
Right now I'm really loving my 50mm - It's just so versatile. I go through phases though - my top 3 would probably be my 50, 35, and 85.
What is your favourite type of shoot?
If I were to look through my portfolio - it's probably work that's colourful, vibrant, and full of story, connection + meaning - I love beauty portraits, family portraits that really highlight personality and interaction, and I love working with local businesses/artists. Honestly I could work with artists all day long - I did a pottery video a few months back with Three Corners Artisan and I could have filmed her working on the wheel for hours - it's just so cool to work with people who are passionate about what they do. I think I just really love maker's stories, because so many people put so much heart into the things they do and it really reflects in the products and services they sell.
One photo you’ve taken that still speaks to you?
I could write a novel on this! One that comes to mind is "Mindfulness" from 2016, with amazing local artist Ashley Nicole Lord. The morning was really foggy and Ashley went into Cultus Lake- although I ended up mirroring the image in Photoshop, the water was still incredibly still, and she was surrounded by this thick mist all around. Just photographing it - the entire scene was so special, and I think we all knew we were shooting something magical. It was a time in my life where I was looking at finishing up my schooling, starting my internship and thesis, and just feeling in a place of daunting transition. I realized I wanted to reconnect back with myself, and just spend some time being present to myself, the space I was in, and the work I was creating - it's an image I still really love, and it was published on the cover of UFV's magazine "Louden Singletree" that year. I also really love my series with Sinead Julia Penner, a conceptual creative series that told the story of her journey with cancer, shooting narrative images from before she started treatment, to after her treatment was completed - we spent so much time working with Siobhan (Shiverz Designs) on different aspects of that series, and shot it over the course of a year - it was such a labour of love and healing for all of us I think.
