Why I Photograph the Quiet Moments of Grief and Loss
“The only thing as powerful as our grief is the love we have for those we've lost,” says photographer Caroline Catlin. In this meditation on the intersection of life and death, Catlin shares how her personal journey with loss drove her to capture the elusive moments of grace and beauty that exist even in the hardest moments imaginable.”
This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxSeattle, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it.
Interviews and Podcasts
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“I wasn’t willing to live a life where I let my diagnosis make the choices for me”: Writer Caroline Catlin started the Little Free Pep Talk Library last year so her neighbors could brighten each other’s days. She said she was inspired by the small acts of kindness she experienced in the hospital, after being diagnosed with incurable brain cancer. Made by thedavidbegnaud and cbsmornings.
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Facing brain cancer, she built a sidewalk library of pep talks
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When Caroline Catlin found out she had an incurable brain cancer, the news understandably devastated her. But Catlin turned her diagnosis around to help others, offering grief counseling to children and teens, taking end-of-life photos for families and launching a Sidewalk Pep Talk Library in her Seattle neighborhood.
Catlin joins host Robin Young for more on her story and her work, and how her work has informed how she can go on with her diagnosis.
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This week on the show, Tash spoke to photographer Caroline Catlin about how she captures the heart-breaking yet beautiful moments at the end of someone's life. They also discussed her mindset after being diagnoses with a treatable yet incurable brain cancer.
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What does it mean to live with an incurable illness while navigating grief, time, and the complexity of human connection? In this episode of Grief Out Loud, we sit down with Caroline Catlin—writer, artist, and grief care worker—to explore her experience of living with an incurable brain cancer diagnosis.
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February 2023
On this episode, Caroline Catlin talks about how her cancer diagnosis motivated a career change from social worker to nonfiction writer. Plus, after transferring from one MFA program to another during the first year, she tells Jared about advice she has for other writers considering this option.
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September 2022
In this episode Ethan and Caroline discuss how they relate to dis-ease in their own lives and those around them. They discuss their relationships with mortality, creativity and connection through the life changes that accompany a major diagnosis.
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April 2020
Writer and photographer Caroline Catlin joins us for a raw conversation about receiving an incurable cancer diagnosis, her experience photographing critically ill children, and the gratitude and community that guides her.
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Seattle photographer Caroline Catlin volunteers taking portraits of the last moments of dying adults, and critically ill children. She uses the work as a way to cope with her own incurable brain cancer.
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September 2019
A brain cancer diagnosis leads a 27-year old mental health worker to use photography to help parents of critically ill children reconcile with death and dying.
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October 2019
Alyssa talked to Caroline Catlin about her experience photographing end-of-life sessions while living with brain cancer.