Beginning Friday (April 1), you can see 49 photos of inspiring women from around the world when INSPIRE: The Women’s Portrait Project launches the new #sheINSPIRESme exhibit at the VentureNorth Building in downtown Peterborough.
Part of the 2022 SPARK Photo Festival, the exhibit features photos submitted last March and April after INSPIRE founder and local photographer Heather Doughty launched her “She Inspires Me” photo essay project on International Women’s Day 2021. Doughty encouraged people to submit a photo they had taken of a woman in their life who inspires them and to share a little insight into why.
“The world was, and still is, a very dark place and INSPIRE has always been a positive energy source,” Doughty says, explaining her motivation behind #sheINSPIRESme. “My dream was to take INSPIRE around the world and the #sheINSPIRESme campaign has allowed this to happen. Covid regulations pushed pause on the traditional in-person photo nomination process, but I didn’t want to see INSPIRE fade away.”
“I thought about the photos of inspiring women that were hiding on my phone and laptop and I was certain I wasn’t alone in this,” she adds. “I wondered if there was a way to reach out to the people of Canada through social media and ask them to submit their photos. I wanted to hand the camera off and see what happened. The response was bigger than either I or the INSPIRE Board could have imagined. We had hoped to reach across Canada — instead we received entries from all over the world.”
As well as photos of local women and women across Canada, the exhibit features images of inspirational women from Germany, Australia, Israel, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The exhibit is dedicated to the memory of Jessica Dalliday, the late entrepreneur who founded Pilates on Demand in Peterborough. Jessica passed away suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 32 on April 6, 2021, five days after the death of her newborn daughter Angeline, due to a rare complication of childbirth.
Soon after Jessica’s death, the #sheINSPIRESme project received a posthumous nomination for her.
“When I read the nomination for Jessica Dalliday, I cried,” Doughty recalls, pointing out Jessica had previously been nominated for the original INSPIRE: The Women’s Portrait Project, an ongoing photo essay Doughty founded in 2018 to celebrate and empower local women. To date, the project has shared the photos and stories of more than 400 women.
“But busy schedules and then the onset of Covid had pushed pause on her nomination, so to receive a nomination for her for the #sheINSPIRESme campaign filled my heart,” Doughty says. “Her nomination came from a group of other women who loved her and were inspired by her — she touched every person she met in a positive and uplifting way.”
“I realized that Jessica embodied all of the attributes of what it means to be inspiring so I reached out to her husband Mike to ask if going forward INSPIRE’s #sheINSPIRESme campaign could be run in her memory,” she adds. “I was so honoured when he said yes.”
The #sheINSPIRESme exhibit will be on display at the VentureNorth Building (270 George St. N., Peterborough) from April 1 to June 25, 2022. QR codes are attached to each of the 49 portraits. so that visitors can read the inspiring story behind each photo.
Doughty is also continuing the #sheINSPIRESme campaign for 2022, encouraging people from around the world to once again submit photos and stories of a girl, woman, or non-binary individual who inspires them.
The launch of the 2022 nomination period coincides with the opening of the #sheINSPIRESme exhibit. Beginning Friday (April 1), people can visit inspirethewomensportraitproject.com to submit their nomination.
The #sheINSPIRESMe campaign is sponsored by Ashburnham Realty, the VentureNorth Building, and Fox Law.
