Sarah Lauren Parrish

I'm a Toronto-based web developer, digital creator, and photographer. I've been taking photographs for as long as I've been building websites, and for me the two have never been separate disciplines. I studied visual art, art history, and theory before moving into technical work, so I tend to think visually first — in composition, pacing, contrast, and structure. Much of my technical career has been about building the skills needed to bring those ideas to life on digital screens in a way that feels intentional, cohesive, and alive.

Photography taught me how to pay attention: to light, composition, atmosphere, and what deserves space in the frame. That instinct carries directly into my web work — how a page breathes, where the eye lands, what gets removed, and how different elements relate to one another.

My academic background spans Art History, Curatorial Studies, and Education — BA, BEd, and MA. I spent years thinking seriously about how images work, how objects carry meaning, and how to teach ideas clearly to people who don't already share your frame of reference. That combination — visual thinking, curatorial instinct, and pedagogy — is the foundation everything else is built on.

For the past 12 years I've built and maintained the web presence for the Blood in the Snow Film Festival — every edition, archive, and component — while also handling digital production for the Deadly Exposure Industry Conference. I'm also a Board member at BITS. These are long-term projects I've helped shape from the ground up and care deeply about.

That work extends well beyond development. I manage all social media, digital content, and online ticketing for the festival year-round — writing copy, designing graphics, shooting and editing photography, scheduling campaigns, and developing the visual language that carries the brand between editions. My work includes content strategy, event photography, social announcement campaigns, BITSradio episode posts (130+ episodes), and the ongoing archival documentation of Canadian genre cinema across the festival's platforms.

My technical work includes DNS infrastructure, email authentication, domain operations, hosting infrastructure, problem-solving and support. I'm the kind of person who writes the bug report and reads the RFC.

Outside of work, I collect vintage glassware, Pyrex, and CorningWare, and I'm drawn to the quiet details most people overlook — in nature, in craft, and in everyday ephemera. I feel deeply connected to live music, cinema, plants, insects and small animals, handmade objects, archives, and the kinds of small discarded things that often carry stories of their own.