Hi, I’m Karen. I love stories. Everyone has one to tell. As a trained journalist, I know how to get to the heart of the story and I’d love to tell yours! |


My love affair with photography led to a career in photojournalism. I taught both writing and photography for ten years but when our family moved to the UK from the States, I realised I needed to get back into the fray and back behind the lens. And so I created Karen Barrett Photography.
My three lively boys give me plenty of experience capturing those never to be forgotten family moments – I don’t mean the ones where they’re all clean and sitting in a row (when does that ever happen in real life?). I mean the ones where they’re being rowdy, crazy and goofy and totally in the moment. I love photos that are a distillation of a memory. What do you love about your life right now? That’s what I want to capture.

One of my favourite photos is of my mother and her sisters sitting around a table looking at old photos of my grandfather. We’re trying to figure out what his experience of World War II must have been.
When I look at the photo, I can hear my aunt’s laugh and the sounds of the three sisters talking over one another. I remember my grandfather and how he used to make silly faces – it’s so at odds with the war veteran in the photos. And suddenly I’m thinking of every family event my aunt hosted in her basement – the place where I took this photo.
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