fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Woodstockers mourn the death of Ben Caswell

by Paul Smart
November 11, 2020
in Community
1
Woodstockers mourn the death of Ben Caswell

Ben Caswell with his son Kai.

Ben Caswell with his son Kai.

Ben Caswell, who died October 22 at the age of 71, was one of the important figures in Woodstock for many years. He moved to town in the late 1970s, drawn by a girlfriend from his roaming post-college years and the promise of a federally-funded arts job at a non-profit photography organization. He taught classes and worked alongside the town’s other photographers printing images for Woodstock Times. Later, he had a darkroom off Tannery Brook, where a five-minute trip to pick up prints would inevitably take an hour or three of conversation that was equal parts gossip and philosophy.

Caswell moved onto Tinker Street, then to Phoenicia. He worked for years hanging art and doing odd jobs at the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum. He married a Japanese photographer, Mizuyo (Mimi) Aburano, who has worked years at the Woodstock School of Art and renovated an old Victorian home. Had a son, Kai, who’s now 13 and as tall and handsome as his dad.

As news spread over recent days about Caswell’s passing, and friends gathered at his open-casket viewing at the Gormley Funeral Home in Phoenicia, the breadth of the man’s reputation for gentility and solid friendship multiplied. He’d gotten a chapter named for him in a memoir by artist Ed Ruscha’s brother Paul. He was profiled for his photos as well as the ways in which it seemed that all of Woodstock, and eventually most of Phoenicia knew him.

“I met Ben when I started to work at WAAM, and we worked together for the next twelve years,” said executive director Josephine Bloodgood. “He took great care of the collection, photographing and matting probably a thousand or more pieces from the permanent collection and helping in countless other tasks — painting, plumbing, receptions, whatever it took — always with a smile. He always made us laugh. If he took a trip — even just around Woodstock, which he often did — and saw something that made him think of you, you’d find a little gift of one kind or another on your desk.”

“I have so many memories, always focused on the good times we had together,” said Howard Greenberg, founder of the Center for Photography at Woodstock, where Ben started working in town. “There was a time when Ben and I were essentially inseparable,” Greenberg wrote in an email from Germany. “I never ever could have made the transition from CPW to Photofind gallery in 1981to1986 without him. We shared five wonderful, fun-filled, sometimes raucous, amazingly productive, never dull or boring years working and playing together. It didn’t begin or end there, but as I think of those years, they were the best. 

“Ben was forever a gentle and kind guy,” continued Greenberg. “We would tussle over this and that, but I only remember laughing and getting it all done in the end. He had this attractive, mischievous look in his eyes, which always belied the little boy inside. I have to believe that look never quite went away. There were always one or two females around, but they couldn’t pin him down—congratulations, Mimi, you did!. Not only did we work well together but I can’t remember Ben ever saying no to anyone when a favor or a job was asked of him. And the only complaints I can remember was an occasional role of the eyes, and a shared expression of ‘oh man.’ I guess others can share of his accomplishments as a photographer, a carpenter, a guy who could take care of almost anything. He was certainly all those. And more recently, he was obviously a devoted husband and father.”

Noted former Times editor Parry Teasdale, “I don’t know about stories, but I do have a copy of his photo of Woodstock kids after what was the annual shaving-cream event on Halloween or the night before. It is among my favorite Page 1 photos.”

That and others of the hundreds of photos played as part of a slide show that Mimi had put together to honor her late husband. Witty, often surreal, self-portraits. A full sense of the wild fun Woodstock kids have long had growing up in town. Women of various ages responding to both Caswell’s Lothario-looks and true-blue constant sweetness and gentle humor. And an entire world filled with Mimi and Kai in recent years.

Old friends shared memories outside, the bright sky gazing down on them all as photographers Dion Ogust and John Kleinhans recalled working alongside Caswell on shoots, or in his darkrooms cluttered with music players and a television playing from behind a red light. His gift for the deep gossip of his adopted home town. Or tales from his days working with Larry Flynt at the L.A. Free Press, where he rose from proofreader to photo editor before moving to Woodstock following an assassination attempt on Flynt.

Others spoke about heartfelt talks, especially after Caswell was diagnosed with prostate cancer within months of his son’s birth. He started to forget all he knew about the mechanics of his craft, asking friends how to use a light meter, say, or work the chemicals in a darkroom. There was even talk of how Ben would have loved to have shot a portrait of himself, open casket. He stayed in touch while living in his gentle and fun-filled present.

Benson B. Caswell was born February 20, 1949 in Poughkeepsie and grew up in the central New York town of Rome. He was an alumnus of Rochester Institute of Technology’s photography program, attended the University of Indiana, worked at what would become CPW on a CETA grant. He ran a photography dark-room business for years, curated and hung gallery shows at the Woodstock Artist Association and Museum, and provided slides for local artists back when those were necessary and in-demand. 

Surviving are his wife Mizuyo Aburano and son Kai, both of Phoenicia, and sister Wendy Caswell of North Carolina.

Tags: members
Before you click away... grab a free month of HV1. Get unlimited access. Get the news you've been missing. Get connected to your community. Keep local journalism alive at $5/mo., or cancel anytime. And enjoy summer!
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

Photos: A reimagined Halloween in Woodstock

Next Post

Shot largely in Ulster County, The Undoing premieres on HBO

Paul Smart

Related Posts

Woodstock’s Comeau property needs maintenance help
Community

Woodstock planners suspect possible bait and switch

August 8, 2022
12th annual Bon-Odori Dance Festival for Peace on the Rondout waterfront
Community

12th annual Bon-Odori Dance Festival for Peace on the Rondout waterfront

August 8, 2022
Father and son spread goodwill teaching woodworking in Malawi
Community

Father and son spread goodwill teaching woodworking in Malawi

August 7, 2022
Walk the walk and help resettle an Afghan family
Community

Walk the walk and help resettle an Afghan family

August 6, 2022
Saugerties Junior High School announces its second-quarter Honor Roll
Community

Kingston Center of SUNY Ulster Fall Open House August 10

August 5, 2022
Kingston Land Trust launches fundraising campaign for “teeny Yosemite”
Community

Kingston Land Trust launches fundraising campaign for “teeny Yosemite”

August 3, 2022
Next Post
Shot largely in Ulster County, The Undoing premieres on HBO

Shot largely in Ulster County, The Undoing premieres on HBO

Please login to join discussion

Trending News

  • Woodstock planners suspect possible bait and switch 1.4k views
  • Ulster County reports first confirmed case of Monkeypox 1k views
  • Saugerties High School student dominates Ulster BOCES lookbook 0.9k views
  • Kingston Land Trust launches fundraising campaign for “teeny Yosemite” 701 views
  • Catskill Mountain Railroad twilight train rides into the past 467 views







Latest HV1 Podcast

Weather

Kingston
◉
82°
Mostly Cloudy
5:58 am8:04 pm EDT
Feels like: 90°F
Wind: 5mph NNW
Humidity: 76%
Pressure: 29.89"Hg
UV index: 5
WedThuFri
86/64°F
90/63°F
82/57°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Ulster County COVID-19 Active Cases

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

×
You have free article(s) remaining. Subscribe for unlimited access.
View Subscription Offers Sign In
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing