WHEN Jo Ritchie’s brother took his own life, the grief that hit her was all-consuming.

Jack was just 24 when he died in November 17. “Until that point, I had not really had to face real grief, and for a long time it was completely overwhelming,” says Jo.

Feeling the need to connect with others who had experienced bereavement, she was fascinated - and uplifted - to discover how many people channel their grief through creativity.

Says Jo, a lifestyle photographer: “Sometimes the last thing I wanted to do was pick up my camera and attempt to be creative, so I was intrigued to meet people whose grief was the catalyst of a creation.”

In 2019 Jo focussed on finding people who had used a creative skill as a distraction, a relief or an expression of their grief and she began taking their portraits.

“It was great to make contact with strangers and learn of their stories,” she says.

“It soon became clear that the portraits required context, so I set out to find an interviewer and writer to create the narrative.”

So it was that Jo teamed up with communications consultant Faye Dawson, whose own grief had taken her down another path.

Together, Faye and Jo have launched Projecting Grief - a venture exploring how creativity can help people channel their pain.

They have been gathering portraits and stories of people who have created a piece of work for which grief was the catalyst, and they’re seeking more contributors.

Faye had two miscarriages in the space of nine months and says she didn’t understand her grief.

“I thought ‘how can you grieve for someone you never met, never knew?’ There were people suffering far worse than me,” she says.

She decided to not try again, but it left her thinking about not continuing her family’s genes.

“I’m a step-parent and a stepchild and I started to ask myself why a genetic connection is so important to so many. Is it not also about those whose lives you have touched? Your influence, who you have been as a person?”

Faye started to explore this by writing about her own family who she describes as “blended and bonkers”.

She says: “I decided to leave my full-time job and set up as a freelancer with the idea of giving myself more time to write, and in 2017 I set up my own communications consultancy but my writing went on hold - until I met Jo.”

Faye and Jo started working together in March this year and have captured and written several portraits and stories, including that of comedian Luisa Omielan, writer and performer of stand-up shows What Would Beyonce Do? and Politics for Bitches, and actor and theatre maker Luke Dickson, whose stage productions include Damned United, Mother Courage and The Great Dixoni.

They have spoken to a range of people using creativity to channel their grief, including cooks, authors, musicians and exhibition-makers, and are looking for more people to contribute to the project.

“Grief has no prejudice,” says Jo. “We want a wide range of voices. Any creative process is valid - from cooking to sewing, dance to pottery, music to writing; anything that has or is helping you deal with the grieving process that you’re happy to talk about.

“We believe this project to not only be beneficial to those who have lost, but also to the arts as an industry and an entity because creativity touches all our lives.”

* Anyone who would like to take part in the Projecting Grief project, or wants more details, can email projectinggrief@gmail.com

l To find out more about the story so far visit projectinggrief.com or follow on Instagram @projecting_grief

To see more of Jo’s photography visit joritchiephoto.com

To read Faye’s story visit fayedawsonpr.com/fayesbook