Sara Harley has loved photography throughout her life, documenting life and training her eye to capturing the unusual. Her entry into a more poetic style of image making began when she moved to Nova Scotia and dedicated more time to her artistic practice. Creating composited photography based artworks, her surreal images are open to the viewer's interpretation.
When she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010, she began writing inspirational verse to pair with her photography. This eventually led to her newspaper column In Focus, where she shared her love of photography and inspirational writing weekly for 18 months.
In 2017 her family went through another medical crisis, and Harley turned to creating composited artwork to help her through the emotional turmoil. The result was her widely acclaimed 15 image project called Stroke of Emotions. Five images were featured in the Picturing Health exhibit at Viewpoint Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and six images were published in Seeing in SIXES 2018, a book curated by the publishers of LensWork. The project was awarded Nominee in the International 5th Annual Fine Art Photography Awards, Conceptual Photography and was also featured in the Mental Health, Photography + Healing issue by PhotoEd Magazine.
Sara's photographs have been exhibited in many group exhibits, local and abroad, and has hosted solo exhibits Roots + Wings (2018), Flight of Fancy (2021), Trailings (2021) and Haven (2022). Her photographs have been used on book covers, including books by Margaret Atwood, Isabel Allende, and Inside: Thoughts from a Pandemic, published by Nevermore Press, a fundraiser for the South Shore Regional Libraries, as well as a dozen art and photography magazines.
A diagnosis of lung cancer in 2022 was unexpected and shocking. Since her surgery and recuperation, she has been experimenting with many ideas and is currently working on a new series with hopes of a solo exhibit in the future.
When she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010, she began writing inspirational verse to pair with her photography. This eventually led to her newspaper column In Focus, where she shared her love of photography and inspirational writing weekly for 18 months.
In 2017 her family went through another medical crisis, and Harley turned to creating composited artwork to help her through the emotional turmoil. The result was her widely acclaimed 15 image project called Stroke of Emotions. Five images were featured in the Picturing Health exhibit at Viewpoint Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and six images were published in Seeing in SIXES 2018, a book curated by the publishers of LensWork. The project was awarded Nominee in the International 5th Annual Fine Art Photography Awards, Conceptual Photography and was also featured in the Mental Health, Photography + Healing issue by PhotoEd Magazine.
Sara's photographs have been exhibited in many group exhibits, local and abroad, and has hosted solo exhibits Roots + Wings (2018), Flight of Fancy (2021), Trailings (2021) and Haven (2022). Her photographs have been used on book covers, including books by Margaret Atwood, Isabel Allende, and Inside: Thoughts from a Pandemic, published by Nevermore Press, a fundraiser for the South Shore Regional Libraries, as well as a dozen art and photography magazines.
A diagnosis of lung cancer in 2022 was unexpected and shocking. Since her surgery and recuperation, she has been experimenting with many ideas and is currently working on a new series with hopes of a solo exhibit in the future.
