Recovering from any kind of addiction can take a lifetime journey through mental, physical and emotional obstacles, let alone sharing your story with the world.
Through a Prince George photographer’s unique idea, 19 local residents took a giant leap forward in showing the world that surviving addiction is possible and anyone can achieve it.
Courtney Taylor created The Warrior Project and made a call to local residents who were willing to be photographed, hair and make-up provided, and posting those portraits publicly on her company’s Facebook page last night (Oct. 10)
The mother of three is beyond thrilled with the end result of her project, which stems from her own personal experiences.
Courtney Taylor is a Prince George photographer (via Facebook/Courtney Taylor)“The most influential people in my life are actually recovered addicts,” she explained in an interview with PrinceGeorgeMatters today (Oct. 11), adding her own mother has been sober for 13 years herself. “My parents were drug addicts when I was growing up. I had a cousin who basically woke up next to a body bag and he’s now sober. I also have a cousin that’s my age [28]; he was addicted to heroin and now he’s clean and sober. It’s just something that I wanted to bring a voice to everybody that makes people feel like they’re not alone and that it is possible to get clean.”
After coming up with the idea while sitting on her own couch, she got the word out about wanting to complete The Warrior Project and instantly received several messages from the public, ranging in addiction recovery stories from 11 months clean and sober to 15 years.
While the 19 people went through with the challenge of sharing their life journey, there were some that nearly backed out, but Taylor commends their courage for choosing to participate.
“There was a couple people that were scarce and so nervous,” she said. “One woman in particular had never done something like this before. She never put anything out there that she was an ex-addict. So watching her get her hair and make-up done, she just became this completely different person. She was two years clean and so what this did was that it made her be confident enough to take her two-year cake. Telling these stories is something I never even thought would happen also.”
Taylor has hopes of continuing this project in Prince George for years to come, saying there are lots of stories to be told, but also more opportunities for people to step into the light and talk about addiction struggles, whether it be drugs, alcohol or something else completely.
“I want to let people know that addiction isn’t a choice,” she described. “It stems from trauma and that everybody has a different outlet on how to cope with it. I’m just hoping it brings the community together, [...] they’re the strongest people I’ve ever met in my entire life.”
Taylor also hopes her three kids will take to heart the work she’s done and better understand that everybody, at some point in their life, is a hurt person.
“My kids aren’t directly affected from substance abuse, but I don’t want them to have so much stuff that they forget and fall down the rabbit hole. I want them to be aware of what happens if you don’t access your emotions or don’t talk about your feelings or live life according to who you are. I want them to know that I tried to make a difference."
Taylor also encourages photographers other cities across Canada to participate and to capture the beauty in all people strong or weak, fully-recovered or still on that road.
