Blog

CLEVELAND — After a tough year for her northeast Ohio neighborhood, one woman is sharing her community one photo and story at a time.

Bridget Caswell is a storyteller, photojournalist and now author. 

“I really think it’s important to tell the story where you’re at,” she said.

Her first book is titled “Homebody: A Portrait of Our Community.”

Photo by Micaela Marshall

“This is really just an extension of what I’ve been doing my whole career,” she said.

Caswell has been a professional photographer for more than two decades and currently works at NASA Glenn Research Center.

She’s called Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood home for 15 years.

“It’s really important to me that my community knows that they were seen,” said Caswell. “That I saw them and that how they were feeling mattered.”

The book was written, edited, designed and printed by other Collinwood residents, like Darlene English who wrote the introduction.

“We are eclectic creators,” Caswell said, reading the book. “Blue colored, white colored and rainbow colored.”

Homebody features nearly 50 portraits of her neighbors. There are side-by-side photos taken in 2020 and 2021.

“I joked a lot that this was my therapy, but I really do think it was a collective way of trying to heal a little bit,” she said.

The goal was to show how their lives have changed in the last year and the ways her community banded together throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You don’t have to go to the epicenter of where something is. You can tell the story of how it impacts your community and I think that’s more important,” said Caswell.

She said she knows it was a hard year for many families.

“This is Jennifer and Stephen Bivens,” she said, pointing to a page in her book. “Stephen is an incredibly talented photographer and wonderful friend. A big advocate for Collinwood and Cleveland. He passed away shortly after this photo was taken. This was actually the last photo taken of them together before he passed.”

Documenting Collinwood is nothing new to Caswell.

“I’ve come to realize how important it is to have a village and to be part of a community that cares about each other,” she said.

For years, her Instagram page has served as a platform to share her photo series “People in my Neighborhood.”

“I stop people and start to talk to them and take their photographs,” she said.

Homebody is more than a book. It’s also an exhibition at Photocentric Gallery in Cleveland’s Waterloo Arts District.

Photo by Micaela Marshall

Caswell teamed up with friend and fellow artist Tim Callaghan for the project.

“We had this really parallel journey throughout the pandemic where I was telling the story of the people, and Tim was telling the story of the buildings that house those people, the landmarks in Collinwood,” said Caswell. 

Meet storyteller, photojournalist and now author – @imakepictures. She is holding her first book “Homebody.”The book features nearly 50 portraits of her neighbors in Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood with side-by-side photos from 2020 and 2021. Full story on @SpectrumNews1OH pic.twitter.com/8MbT17efZo

— Micaela Marshall (@MMarshallTV) January 12, 2022

The book is available for preorder online and the exhibition is open through Feb. 19.

As Caswell works on her next project, she promises to never stop snapping and sharing portraits of her home.

“I will always continue to tell the story of Collinwood,” she said.