My longtime friend and colleague, Nat Caccamo, has spent the past year or two working on a series of fine art photographs entitled Project W, after our place of employment. Winterthur Museum, Gardens & Library is a former du Pont family estate and working dairy farm that recently celebrated its 50th anniversary as a public institution. It's a beautiful place to visit, but an even more beautiful place to work. The longer you spend time there, the more you get to know its nooks and crannies--its outbuildings, fields, various former cottages, mostly forgotten stone steps, streams, quarries, woodland, and paths. In other words, all the hidden places that a guest normally wouldn't see in the course of a day's visit, when they're likely touring the gorgeous mansion and gardens. The hidden parts, though not as flashy as the formal areas, are so dear and beautiful to me, and it's been a delight to see Nat's brilliant photographs capture the soul of Winterthur's less-marketed side. While musing over his Project W prints this winter, it occurred to me that he has, with his camera, found the subtle, yet powerful and pervasive "ghosts" that still linger all around the estate. It was once a working farm, with many families and workers living and earning their livelihoods on its grounds. There was a baseball team, train station, creamery, and gate house, as well as gardeners, stone workers, carpenters, flower arrangers, and other domestic staff. Hundreds of people helped run the place in its heyday, and Nat's photographs, like the place itself, still drip with the "ghosts" of their lives. Because I've long been fascinated by the concept of ghosts, I decided to build on Nat's work with a ghost-centered writing project of my own. I selected a few Project W photographs and wrote what came to mind--sometimes just a few paragraphs or lines, sometimes a bit more. It's still in progress and probably will be for a long time, but here are the first three "Ghost Stories" in their current (draft) form. I hope to polish them and add more as I have time. Just click on the thumbnails below--twice for maximum size. If you'd like to view more of Nat's work, please see the "Links to my friends' sites" tab. Nat is currently working on a website for Project W, so I'll post that too when its ready.
