MY STORY

Hello! My name is Brad W. Carr. I chose to go by that when I was around five years old because I thought that ‘Brad’ sounded much cooler than ‘Bradley’. The ‘W’ stands for ‘William’. So, really, my name is Bradley William Carr, although upon birth I had my biological fathers’ surname, which is ‘Larkin’. My mother and him parted ways when I was two years old, and it was back then, in 1993, that I last saw his face. I have been a ‘Carr’ ever since, and I am incredibly proud to be able to call myself one, and to be here communicating what it means to be one.

I have the deepest love for this magical existence, and I particularly enjoy photography, writing, belly laughs, poetry, walking amongst trees (especially in the silence of dawn when the leaves are falling down), reading non-fiction books, days out with my girlfriend and making her look beautiful in photographs, singing songs and sometimes dancing, authentic conversations that run deep into the soul, working out in the gym, cooking and eating beautiful food, meeting and learning from everyone, and, occasionally, a very brief city break.

Over the past six-and-a-half years, I have been on the most remarkable journey of growth and transformation. It is a journey that has led me ‘here’, to a place within myself that feels like home: to a place of creativity and authenticity, a place where I have rid myself of many of the fears and inherited beliefs that once held me back and prevented me from realising my true creative potential.

My journey to explore my inner landscape and create change began during the peak of a short period of depression following my first heartbreak at the beginning of 2018. I was twenty-six years old, and, after breaking down on my bedroom floor one evening, feeling lost, broken and alone, I hid away in the darkness of a gym and started lifting weights obsessively as a way of dealing with my emotions. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was the beginning of what will probably now be a lifelong process of transmuting pain into power.

The heartbreak that had left me feeling depressed and alone back then, became the catalyst for my own spiritual awakening, and it has turned out to be a completely lifechanging chapter. I would go on to open up Pandora’s box, unpackaging much of my own trauma and childhood pain. With each realisation came an increased inner strength. I realised that the root of my own pain went deep - so deep, in fact, that it ran beyond myself and into the lives of my parents and even beyond. I learnt that my own heart had been broken many times already before my then-girlfriend had called an end to our brief romance. It was, perhaps, broken upon my birth.

Whilst documenting my changes and personal transformation through photographs and videos online, I quickly realised my love and deep passion for the art of storytelling. This, in hindsight, far outweighed my love of bodybuilding, which I was using as an excuse to tell the story. The story was one of a human being overcoming adversity and a man healing his deep-rooted, ancestral pain. It was one of change and transformation, of overcoming fears and identifying limiting beliefs to see how far he could grow towards the light.

The real change and transformation occurred when I decided to take a walk outside one day with my sister’s camera in hand. That walk across the threshold from the known world into the unknown world of Nature proved to be a pivotal moment in my life - it marked another key moment in my journey of awakening and I have been gradually opening to the world through my photographs and writings since.

My discovery of my artistic and creative Self quickly put to bed my early dreams of becoming a personal trainer. I could not resist the urges to run away outdoors into the landscape in pursuit of the photograph, and this came at the expense of my studies at the time. The natural world was alluring. I knew it on the first day that I picked the camera up - I was born to create photographs and tell stories of Nature.

My creative works stand to represent a deep, spiritual quest - one man’s journey towards the light of love, peace, joy and further towards the, perhaps, unreachable heights of enlightenment - something that I may have had a taste of in moments whilst outdoors in the landscape, immersed in the mystical world of Nature and my creative practice.

For many years, I have been feeling called to pass on what I learn and give back to the world on a larger scale, and that is what has led me here to this online space where I can share my writings with the world, and offer my services as a transformational coach to guide people along their own journey’s of awakening. I have realised in recent times, that there is inside of me, a wisdom that runs deep - so deep, in fact, that it cannot be my own. I realise that I am in service to something much greater than myself. I hope that, through my words and teachings, I can guide you to find your own way there.

To read more, please visit my ‘Journal’.