Hi and welcome to Past Caring. I’m Sarah and am so pleased you’re here. Quite what for though, you may be wondering? Let me explain a bit about who I am and also what you’ll find on this Substack.

I’m a photographer and writer, sole parent carer and it’s people and our experiences of living who fascinate me. I write and photograph to pay my bills and Hampshire is where these bills accumulate.

Writing and finding community with others who may share this curiosity and confusion about how they make it through all the mad and often contradictory feelings of living a life is what drives me. The learning and unlearning that seems stitched in to this oftentimes disorienting process.

Exploring is what ignites me. What’s left of me beyond all the raising. I’ve done a heap of raising; I’ve leavened four humans myself although I don’t mean fully by myself, not entirely that at all. After all, it takes a village as the saying goes. These particular humans do have a Dad and he plays a role though we haven’t been parenting together for more than a decade now.

Mine is a care full life. The Past Caring of the title is necessarily ambiguous. My caring is current and will continue lonnnnnng into the future. Once a parent, always a parent etc. and particularly so in my case as the youngest won’t live a fully independent life. I don’t want this to dominate here although it might because it’s

What do you get here at Past Caring ?

• Regular essays and enquiries on life and aspects of it in all its often gritty, grotty, muddled mess. These essays feature written word, audio often, video sometimes as well as my own photography always.

• The option to comment and join the discussion.

• A bimonthly photo essay on a theme.

• Surreptitious photography tips because, well, I can’t help myself.

• Unframed ; a monthly interrogation of a featured photo. A reflection on what’s not necessarily visible but was felt or held in mind at the time the shutter was pressed.

  All subscribers receive one essay per month and with a paid subscription much, much more.

I’d encourage you to opt for a paid subscription if you’re able to do this as the subscription fee very much helps support me in my work as a freelancer. Earning a living as a creative and with a disabled young adult at home calls for flexibility, resourceful thinking and multiple revenue streams. With care responsibilities which make regular hours of paid employment difficult, I depend on all the income that my words and photographs generate.

A little more about my photography ...

You can see my recent work on my photography website www.sarahsheldrake.co.uk and over here on my insta.

I most regularly take commissions in but not limited to the South of England. On occasions I’ve worked for clients in France, Scotland and Wales.