Some people turn the lens on life and it reflects that view back. Other people have a gift that allows their lens to illuminate the interior of what they see as well as the exterior. Those photographs telegraph an inner light. They give a sense of where the subject appears on the spectrum of comfort, love, happiness, anxiety, joy, peace and all the other complex human emotions. Cathrine White is one of those talented photographers, and in the years that has been photographing our family, she has provided us with a wonderful record of our journey. Her striking black and white portraits, which line the walls of our home, are a reminder of where we have been and also where we hope to go. My twins, who debuted in these pictures as kindergarteners, are now in middle school, my older children have left the nest.
In the first set of pictures she took, we are all together, a tight fist of a family at a Rye Beach, whole again after my husband’s devastating injury. On our faces Cathrine has captured a wary triumph, a joy that we have all survived and are here together. In each of the photos in the subsequent years, Cathrine has given us the gift of looking back on ourselves as we were, as a family. Life moves fast. Memories morph in the mind and change, impossible to recall as they really were. But when i want to feel centered and feel gratitude for how far how much we have as a family, how lucky and blessed we are, I study these photographs that live throughout our home.
With love,
-Lee Woodruff
