The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘A Connecticut Christmas’
Classic New England illustration volume is pictorial tour of 40 towns
CHESTER — If you have not been feeling the Christmas spirit lately, there’s an instant antidote for that. It is as simple as flipping through the pages of “A Connecticut Christmas, Celebrating the Holiday in Classic New England Style,” a book of photographs by Caryn B. Davis and text by author Eric D. Lehman.
The 10-inch by 8-inch coffee table book, published by Guilford’s Globe Pequot Press, features images of Connecticut landscapes, homes, churches, barns and boats — all decked out during the holiday season.
Davis comes to the business of photography with 30 years of experience. She originally worked in documentary television, but since 2000 has been working as a freelance photographer, specializing in architecture, marine, portraits and travel.
Jacques Pepin, chef and author, describes the publication as a “sentimental journey through the lore of Connecticut which makes you want to sing Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. From churches, festivals and town greens, to private homes, farms and barns, this heartwarming book makes you smile.”
Already sold out in its first printing of about 3,000 copies, the book is a hit and Davis has been making the rounds at book signings.
in the Chester studio/home she shares with husband and artist, Leif Nilsson, Davis said the book has been purchased as gifts for teachers, housewarming gifts for owners of newly purchased homes, and former residents who now live out of state. And people usually purchase more than one.
Besides inspiring the Christmas spirit, the volume is also a guide to events throughout Connecticut.
Among those events is the Boar’s Head Festival on 12th Night at the Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, a celebration of the Epiphany which includes camels and llamas. The book notes the church was built of brownstone from Portland quarries.
Another is the Lantern Light Tours at Mystic Seaport, the 19th-century living museum where visitors enjoy a play, set on Christmas Eve in 1876, walking from place to place in the village, guided by actors in period cos tumes holding lanterns.
The lower Connecticut River Valley and Connecticut Shoreline towns are also well-represented. It shows the huge display of lights in Ivoryton, the North Pole Express in Essex (otherwise known as the Valley Railroad Company’s Steam Train), artist-decorated palettes and Christmas trees at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme (Griswold was born on Christmas Day 1850), the arrival of Santa on a fire truck in Chester and lighted boat parades in Mystic and Essex.
Lehman is the director of creative writing at the University of Bridgeport and is the author of several books and articles, many about Connecticut. “It was such a gift to have him as a writer,” Davis said. He came on board after the book was photographed, and highlighted facts about the places she visited, as well as Christmas traditions, she said.
Lehman writes in the section about the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion in Norwalk that the state declared Christmas a legal holiday in 1845, and the following year, an American women’s magazine, Godey’s Lady’s Book, popularized decorating trees at Christmas with its depiction of Queen Victoria’s tree.
Davis’ mansion photographs show a display of greenery and lights leading to a Christmas tree on the grand staircase, which cost $50,000 to construct in 1868, at the time, a sign of a move toward more elaborate architecture.
This is Davis’ first book. It came to be after she pitched a story to Victoria Magazine about the Connecticut River Valley as a travel destination, which was narrowed down to travel in the area at Christmastime. Ann Nyberg, WTNH Channel 8 television news anchor and book author for the same book publisher, heard about it and connected her to Amy Lyons, an editor at Globe Pequot.
Davis said the editor already had a description of the Christmas book, but not the specifics. “All that was an evolution as we went along,” she said.
It took Davis two winter seasons, first six weeks and the next year eight, to travel to 40 towns and 62 locations to get the final some 400 shots in the book.
The search for subjects started with the expected. “Some were obvious, like the light shows and the boat parades,” she said. But over time, the search expanded from online research to people who had heard about the project and offered suggestions.
Some shots were serendipitous, found as Davis traveled to her destination. “A lot of it was driving to a certain place, shooting, and stopping along the way,” she said.
Although she had some trouble finding snow — she drove up to the northwest corner twice in one day to photograph the white stuff — and took the cover shot in Essex while not feeling well and freezing, the whole experience was far from unpleasant. “It was a whole lot of fun, I’ll tell you that,” she said.
Besides discovering interesting places in Connecticut, Davis became acquainted with people who live around the state on her travels. “I met a lot of nice people,” she said. Each was happy to share their stories, traditions and invite her into their homes and communities.