Artist Statement: We guard the contents of our homes and businesses in much the same way as we protect the secrets of our hearts. Doors and windows may be necessary to let in light and allow people to come and go, but we install locks to block the uninvited. Unintentionally, however, these portals often offer a selective view of what matters to the people who occupy the space inside. Framed this way in isolation, these glimpses may reveal more than was intended about the secrets of their hearts. I’ve collected images of windows and doors on walks with my camera in neighborhoods as varied as Cushendon in Northern Ireland and the Belmont neighborhood in West Philadelphia, using digital darkroom techniques to soften the literal and enhance what’s essential in these images.
Bio: Catherine D. Kerr caught the camera bug early on, when her parents gave her a Brownie Starlet camera as a gift for her seventh birthday. Her first published photographs were taken to illustrate her work as a newspaper reporter and freelance writer. As she followed a career path that led to ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church, however, her purpose evolved from telling what happened to telling what matters. She is especially interested in the way light can be a metaphor for grace or presence. In recent years she has focused on photography as a spiritual discipline, and she's written about and led quiet days on photography as a contemplative spiritual practice.
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