Tim Foley, founder of Write Speak Recover, gives further insight into the initiative and speaks openly about his own journey.
As we launch our collaboration with Write Speak Recover and bring you a collection of original portraits of poets using their art to find strength in their recovery journey, we sat down with Tim Foley - founder of WSR - to learn more about the project, it's framework and goals. We also learn a lot about the wonderful fellow himself.
Tim, great to have you here and to work with you on this beautiful project. For our readers, may you please tell us a little more about Write Speak Recover?
For sure! Write, speak, recover is simple framework I have found enormously helpful to my mental health, and recovery. Meaning, that the act of writing something, then saying it out loud, to myself, or a crowd helps me work through things. I have seen this in others in the spoken word poetry community. Something important happens in those rooms. The bravery to lay down a story that is deeply personal and reflective and to then stand in front of others and perform it is very inspirational. The WSR project is a way to connect to other poets to learn how writing and speaking has helped them. In the hope their stories and art may help others.
It's a really powerful project, one we're honoured to be a part of - how does it work out in the real world?
I connect with poets at open mic and poetry events, arrange a time to meet and take their portrait, shot on black and white film. We then share them on a WSR Instagram page and in TheNeverZine. Along with the images we share one poem they wrote, some background on how poetry has helped the poet heal and some insight into their process and work that has inspired them. I met Graham, the founder of TheNeverPress at poetry event and I loved his enthusiasm for independent art, and just fell in love with the zine, it's ethos and the potential it held. TheNeverZine just felt like the perfect place for this project. We're also working closely together to intentionally build out the photography and poetry space on the site alongside WSR.
The photography aspect of WSR is a really powerful component of the offering.
The project will celebrate poet voices and the portraits allow viewers to see who the words came from. I am aiming to show the vulnerability, fearlessness and stoicism that exists in the people I meet in the poetry scene. I shoot Ilford film on a Hasselblad 500cm, it's fully mechanical which is a wonderful departure from the digital realm. I've always loved the framing of the 6x6 square format and it fits nicely into a modern mind that is used to seeing that format in Instagram posts.
All my processing and printing is done at Photofusion in Brixton. Jenni, Liz and the team are super, there are colour and black and white darkrooms, studio for hire, and they run youth and other educational programs and exhibitions. There is a brilliant photography supply store there, Parallax, Frank the owner is a wealth of knowledge and always around for a chin wag.
I love the magic of seeing something, capturing it on film and waiting to meet it again. We don't get that much in life now, that nervous anticipation. It's meditative. It forces you to be intentional, not wasteful. I feel like that about the poetry too, I write something and then discover it in a whole different way when I perform it.
May you please us a little bit about your creative journey and how you came to found WSR?
I'm from all over the place, and often feel all over the place and not rooted anywhere. Born in Scotland, raised in England, traveled the world, lived in USA for 15 years, both east and west coasts, now back in UK. My wife and I identify as "runners", we never stay anywhere for too long, we are in the midst of a 7th move in 7 years. She's a dancer, teacher and physiotherapist and we spend our lives traveling and seeking. While that's fun, it's hard to always feel grounded. I feel most still when I am in the movement of creativity if that makes any sense. I have been sober from alcohol for 3 years, and varying time periods of other things, at time of writing.
Photography has been with me as a creative outlet, from the mid 90s when I started shooting film. Using darkrooms at Salisbury college, photography A-Level then a Foundation Degree at Bournemouth Arts Institute. I shot a lot of digital photography on my travels but didn't start film again until during Covid when I was living in San Francisco and it seemed a perfect time to wander around a stunning place with a camera, and there is a terrific community darkroom there.
Since then I have ammassed a small army of film cameras. I have a Canon Canonet, EOS 500, Olympus Trip, Konica Autoreflex A (thanks Jon!) and Yashica A. I also love inexpensive "toy" cameras, I have a Holga and a Kodak Ektar, both of which cost less than £50. It's exciting to see what comes out of them, light leak, imperfections and all. Digital is so precise, I hang out on the opposite end of that scale. The "Blad" has always been a dream and it seemed disrespectful to shoot the WSR project on anything else so I took the plunge and got one.
And your poetry journey?
Poetry is more recent pursuit. I have only been writing for a couple years, partly after being inspired by my 8 year niece who had been writing poems. A favourite was about "stupid medals", and I saw how she processed the upset of missing out on a gymnastics medal to her pal by angrily scribbling it down and reading (shouting) it to me. I thought, "she might be onto something!" I go to an online "Recovery Dhama" group and there is a chap there who always shares a beautiful poem and over time I started to share mine too and that helped me and seemed to help others. Then, when I moved to London I found myself writing in earnest. I started going to poetry events, sharing, and here we are.
I'm not sure what my work is really, it's truly an outpouring of whatever I feel in a moment. As it's progressed I have found a lot of it is about moments and times in my life. Reflecting on those has helped me process the good moments and, crucially, the more damaging aspects.
The WSR project is an opportunity to bring my passions for photography, poetry, people together. I have never been a portrait photographer, I have very much shyed away from it. I have always liked to shoot at a distance. Sport, street, landscapes and abstract. That was part of my damaged self, to be removed from life as an observer. So this is a next step for me in my recovery, art and a leap outside my comfort zone. Especially as I am getting up close to people and their very personal stories. It feels right though and what I should be doing. I want to be very sensitive and respectful to people's situations and feel very honoured that I'll curate their words and images together. Which in turn might inspire others to try the writing and speaking process for themselves in their own recoveries.
What do you hope to achieve with WSR?
Recovery in the context of the project can mean any type of dis-ease and difficulty, and that writing and speaking is enabling someone to find a way through. On a real level, I am hoping the project will foster a community of like minded people who are finding strength and positive change by way of their art.
I am hoping the work can eventually be presented in a book and gallery show. I have a vision of all the portraits on a wall while the poets share their work and the ground shakes, opens up and we are all transported to a utopia where everything rhymes first time and we never forget a line!
And may you please share one of your compositions?
Of course...
The Happiest
The happiest
Have braved the dark
Been completely gone
Carry the marks
Dropped to a depth
Of fragmented self
Hidden and wept
In shadowy health
Crawled into corners
Hiding our eyes
Funeral mourners
For our own lives
Broke down in bits
Cast ‘cross the ground
Shuddering fits
Bleeding and bound
Refusing to go,
We scooped up our souls
Took what we know
Climbed out the hole.
Reborn from the pit
In glittering grace
To peacefully sit
A smile on our face
Write Speak Recover will be hosted on TheNeverZine, where we will be bringing you portraits, insights and poetry from wonderful artists finding the strength to get through by using their art.
We invite you to follow Write Speak Recover on instagram and to reach out to Tim at WSR or us directly at the zine to learn more, or put yourself forward to be featured in this initiative.
Be kind. Stay present. One moment after the next.
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