Unveiling the Truth, One Frame at a Time

Cathrine White, a woman of our time and our town, a self-taught photographer, began her artistic journey a decade ago because she wanted to help a family in need.

By Robin Jovanovich

The journey, not the arrival, is what matters most. So wrote, notably, Anne Morrow Lindbergh and T. S. Eliot.

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Cathrine White, a woman of our time and our town, a self-taught photographer, began her artistic journey a decade ago because she wanted to help a family in need.

 

After Bob Woodruff suffered a traumatic brain injury, many families in Rye brought meals over and transported the four children, especially when Lee was at the hospital. White offered to take family pictures as he — and the whole family — recovered. Her photos appear in the Woodruff’s astounding story of faith, love, and renewal, “In an Instant.”

 

“The experience transformed and informed my life,” said White. “It gave me a greater understanding of how each family is a link in a long, connecting chain.” White has been taking pictures since she was a young girl in Sweden, but only as a pastime. She worked in advertising and marketing before stopping to take time to raise her three children.

 

Soon after moving to Rye 11 years ago, Cathrine brought a black and white portrait to Rye Camera. “Anja Porto, one of the owners, said I should put it in her window,” she recalled. “I wasn’t thinking of it as a business. I love that it’s given my daughters the chance to see I love what I do.”

 

For the Joyful Heart Foundation, White has captured hope, survivors of sexual abuse, and devotion. She donates her time.

 

“It’s not the flash of Cathrine’s camera that helps us shine a light on these issues or tell our community’s stories — stories that are often so difficult to tell — through her photographs,” offered Mariska Hargity and Maile Zambuto of the Joyful Heart Foundation. “It’s her true understanding of the complexity of our work, her passion for making the world a more joyful one, and her way of cherishing each moment, all of which she somehow captures in each of her pictures.”

 

White says she takes on those assignments that inspire her. “Photography reveals truth, which I’m always searching for. I know that each individual sees beauty in different places. For me, the photos I took of the Woodruffs represent healing, unity, family, and strength.”

 

For the Woodruff family, Lee said the photographs are “a wonderful record of our journey as a family, a reminder of where we have been and also where we hope to go.”  She added, “Some people turn the lens on life and it reflects a picture back of what they see. Other people have a gift that allows their lens to illuminate the interior picture as well as the exterior. Those photographs fix the subject not only in a physical place but also where they appear on the spectrum of comfort, love, happiness, anxiety, joy, peace, and all the other complex human emotions. Cathrine White is one of those photographers.”