The Spirited Tribe Project
You know me and my projects. There's a few reasons for them. I NEED to be creative in my own way. I NEED to feel that something I have taken photos of has a little more meaning and substance to it than the everyday sessions I have. I NEED to feed my soul and do things that are important to me. I am not always good with words...or hell...even emotions honestly. But, I can portray in photos what I need the world to see. What I need to say that doesn't come out right on paper, I can put to picture. (most of the time! LOL).
This is a project I've wanted to do for yearssssss! It has a long story of how I thought of it. Which honestly isn't all that necessary to know. I just always wanted to show women....ladies...girls.....together. All different body types, professions, religions, sexualities etc. You know...we are all different but all the same type thing.
That's what this all started out as. Showcasing different women in different ways. How it turned out completely surprised me and brought me to tears honestly.
Let's get a little personal. I am going to treat this as my diary for a few paragraphs. Just so you can understand how this project completely did a 360 and got this name.
In my 20's I really had no friends. I wasn't asked to be in weddings of gal pals....I wasn't invited to game nights or days spent at the lake etc. I stayed home. I had babies. That's what I wanted. That's all I needed. They were my everything. I had no need to try and fit anything else in. Sure, I had a few acquaintances or "friends" from my kids activities etc. We would talk on the phone occasionally or meet up for a cook out etc. but that was pretty rare.
In my 30's I found a local Mommy's group. My kids were older than most in the group, but I got to help plan parties and activities and mom's night outs etc. It was definitely my thing! I found myself drawn to some of the mom's that became like family. I had one friend from years before that I also brought into the group as well. There were 4 of us that became pretty inseparable. We had some holidays together, birthdays, vacations, and most weekends doing something in some form.
One of those friends drifted away...still for reasons unknown exactly. It was really sad. But then there were three.
Those three of us carried over into my 40's. We still spent sooooo much time together. Weekly breakfast meetings. Vacations..you name it. It was such a part of daily life to include them. Also in this decade (and the tail end of the 30 decade), I started to belong to local photography groups and became friends with some local Togs that helped feed my soul in that way. Getting together to shoot or just talk and be with like minded people was such a blessing!
It's a very long and personal story that I don't want to talk about really ever again, but one of those friends and I parted ways. It was devastating. Then Covid hit. No more going to eat. No more get togethers, holidays, birthdays, road trips, Tog get togethers, meetings etc. All done.
My very very social past 20 years had come to a screeching halt. Pair that with all the great things that come with mid life issues with women AND an empty house for the first time ever in my adult life has really really taken a toll on my emotional stability. And until I started planning this I had no idea exactly how much it had worn on me.
This started as a Girl Empowerment type project. It was the culmination of years of the idea floating in my head and the other levels I've already done for it. (My American Girl, Traveling Dress and Motherhood is Tough, but so am I levels). I found myself the night before being a nervous wreck! Now, I did over 400 sessions last year alone....so nerves aren't really an issue for me anymore when it comes to this. LOL. But, this made me a mess!
I broke all the girls down into different groupings. Age groups first. Of course the morning of the shoot a bunch of people backed out or just didn't show....so that left us with only two in our youngest group. Which we affectionately named our "Babies".
Alivia & Haley
Our 20 year old group consisted of:
Lexi, Rachel, Baylee & Jessika
Our 30 group held:
Jennifer, Haley, Mandy, Lisa and Tara
Our final group: Which I think I referred to as " Us Old Ladies" on numerous occasions LOL consisted of:
Myself, Dani, Amy, Jolene and Shamara
Sorry only one of our group because I totally screwed up the serious face shot! It definitely wasn't going in here! LOL.
The breakdown of ages became really important to me because I kept thinking back on my decades. And how differently my life has looked in each one. And when I looked around the room, the same could be said for my group there that day. Some in school some couldn't wait to get out of school. Mom's of numerous children and some that have no clue if they even want kids. Some are business owners, some are stay at home moms....we really covered the gamut when it came to different types of lifestyles!
Here's our girls that hold degrees or are currently working on one.
Our Momma's to fur babies:
Our resident blondes:
Curly and straight hair:
And our resident Momma's:
“I am not lucky. You know what I am? I am smart, I am talented, I take advantage of the opportunities that come my way and I work really, really hard. Don’t call me lucky. Call me a badass.” - Shona Rhimes
I had a few ideas that were a little more in depth. The main one I wanted was the "Babies" of the group with the oldest of the group. Symbolism in this one little photo.... that to me, means accepting, loving, and supporting the women standing aside you even if she doesn’t look like you, speak like you, or come from the same background as you. It means instead of competing with her, you lift her up! It means look out for each other, help each other, protect each other. Our years of wisdom can surround, teach and help the younger generation. No matter if they are our daughters, friends, nieces, grand daughters and most of all ....a stranger.
I then took my youngest ones and made them lay together. All in the same space. No competition. The momma's, scholars, friends, strangers. Together.
Don't get me wrong! We had some fun too!!!!
What this turned into was feeding my soul with great people and LAUGHTER! We danced, we acted silly, we talked too loud, threw confetti (which it's still stuck in the ceiling!), played really loud music, sang totally out of key, joked and got to just be together. No judgements. It didn't matter where we all came from or where we are headed. For those few hours we were just girls handing out supporting and being together. At the end I stopped cleaning up for a second and just took a look around. I saw hugs being given and info being exchanged for FB and snapchat accounts. I saw friendships forming.
Yes, we all unique. No matter how many children, degrees or dollars in our bank accounts we have we were all just in white shirts and jeans for a day.
All of these women are STRONG, courageous, and beautiful and I am so proud to know each and every one of them. And just like you and I, they each are still working on their journeys of self love every day.
The Spirited Tribe came from my heart this morning.
I love each one of these girls spirits. The quiet ones. The educated ones. The funny ones. The boss babe ones. Even the ones I just met. I am a firm believer in spirit animals and spirit friends. I think I have a few of those in this group.
And the Tribe part came from my broken tribe that I depended so much on, getting rebuilt and fixing those cracks.
These girls are my Spirited Tribe. And I wish nothing more for them than to find their tribe and keep them close.
I am going to end this with a few of my favorite people doing one of my favorite things! I asked for a few volunteers to come up in front of everyone and DANCE! These three without hesitation jumped up and got front and center shakin' it to some Shania Twain. Some of the photos are blurry and out of focus and I don't even care! They deserve to be shown because they are awesome!
I am also including the link to a video of all the shots taken including some behind the scenes. Make sure to take a look.
Those of you who always volunteer to do my crazy ideas...I adore you and hope you continue to follow me wherever I may roam and whatever craziness I throw at you because you are my people <3
All my hugs,
Joyce
