Act As If

New Newsletter, New Project

I’m delighted to kick off Keith Barraclough Photography’s new Substack with the story behind a new personal project that Keith and I are developing.

Competitive and recreational sports have always been a big part of Keith’s life. One of his earliest memories is of playing soccer on a dirt pitch in Lusaka, Zambia, an experience that sparked his love for the game, inspired his college athletic career and brought him like-minded connection, community, and decades-long friendships. It was a journey that began when he showed up to do the reps.

Inspiration struck along our routine walk to Hudson River Park, along an industrial block lined with garage doors that immediately reminded me of our wall of my dad’s geometric, mathematics-based paintings on corrugated cardboard in crayon-box colors. My dad, Maurice, was also an athlete; he earned a basketball scholarship to Purdue University and was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005.

I thought the doors would make an engaging backdrop for a sports lifestyle series targeting women who’ve tapped into their power, purpose and potential through competitive sports by first showing up to do the reps. That incremental, consistent action over time—becoming a little bit better every day— becomes extraordinary: these women level up and act like the people they want to become in the future. They hone their identities and manifest their life journeys, both on the playing field and off.

Act As If, our new personal project, will capture these stories in stills, motion and on-camera interviews.

Peri, pictured here, is a former Division 1 tennis athlete and a sports broadcaster (she is host of the Tennis Channel podcast On The Rise) who has come full circle, recently returning to Brown University, her alma mater, to serve as assistant coach for the women’s tennis team.

Read more about Peri in our Substack for The Redhead Project, our 12-year-old personal project that captures the unique stories of redheads.

Pictured below, Jane Anne says her identity is wrapped in her life’s work mentoring and empowering young women in sports. As a Title IX kid and as a physical education teacher and coach for over three decades, she draws out what’s inherently within her students, getting them to believe and realize their potential. She basks in their glow.

Keith and I look forward to sharing their stories with this new body of work soon.

In the meantime, if you know of any women in the New York City area who may be a good fit for the project—we’re looking to include a diversity of ages (current and former athletes), ethnicities and sports played—please connect us!

Thanks for reading!

See you back here soon.

Kate