I need a kiss before they leave is an emotional family portrait, filled with immense joy, but also with a disturbing realisation of a wonderfulness that cannot be stored. It reflects upon a human desire to freeze time, to forever savouring those moments which are destined to live on only as distant memories. Photography is of course the artistic technique to actually freeze time and to store a split second forever. In this book, Norwegian photographer Mathilde Helene Pettersen captures an entire parenthood, with all its bright and dark moments.