Tara Wray is a filmmaker and photographer working on autobiographical projects focusing on mental health, the ambivalence of family ties, and dogs. She makes art to better understand the world around her and to define her place within it.
She is the founder of the Too Tired Project, a nonprofit arts organization advancing mental health advocacy through photography.
Wray is available for photography assignments worldwide. Contact: tara@tarawray.net.
Photobooks: Year of the Beast, Too Tired Press (2021), El Dorado Freddy’s, Belt Publishing, in collaboration with Danny Caine (2020), Too Tired for Sunshine, Yoffy Press (2018). Handmade artist's books: Come Again When You Can’t Stay So Long (2014) and Each One Wonderful (2013).
Selected Press: Washington Post, Buzzfeed, NPR, Vogue Polska, VICE, Huff Post, BUST Magazine, GUP Magazine, La Presse, Lenscratch, Burn Magazine, PHOTONEWS, Monopol-Magazin, Deutschlandfunk Kultur.
Commissions: Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, NPR, Sierra Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, Valley News, Vermont Standard, Boston Globe.
Collections: Amon Carter Museum of American Art; George Eastman Museum; Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University; Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame; Dartmouth College Book Arts Workshop.
Selected Exhibitions: Forthcoming solo: AVA Gallery and Art Center, Lebanon, NH, April 2022. TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, Galway, Ireland (2021), Kunst Haus Wien, Museum Hundertwasser, Vienna, Austria (2019). Solo exhibitions: Brush Art Gallery, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY (2019), Christel DeHaan Fine Art Center, University of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN (2019).
Documentary Films: Manhattan, Kansas (SXSW 2006 Audience Award; Film Society of Lincoln Center; broadcast on Kansas PBS and The Documentary Channel). Cartoon College (Newport Beach Film Festival, Glasgow Film Festival).
Photo/Film Grants: Vermont Arts Council (made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Vermont Community Fdn.), Chicken & Egg Pictures Grant, LEF Foundation Creation Grant, NYSCA Media & Film Distribution Grant, Jerome Foundation NYC Media Arts Grant, Anthony Radziwill Documentary Fund Production Grant.
Collab: Some Days Just Are, a collaborative photo series pairing photographers from around the world to capture and share what their day looks like in parallel time. Doin Work, interview series at Vice with photographers on their process. Lady Shooters, interview series at BUST Magazine with women in photography.
Born in Manhattan, Kansas, Wray received her BA from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University in 2004.
She lives off-grid in rural Vermont with her husband, identical twin sons, and a dog named Hula.