Many people have asked me how this project came about. I will try to answer that here as best I can. I’ve had long-held interests in both stereo photography and ghosts that led to a body of work called Communing with Spirits. The narratives of that series were often inspired by places or people. Emily Larson was a 16 year old student of mine at the Evanston Art Center and had a twin sister. Emily and Sarah looked even younger, and I thought that I might use them as actors in a narrative about twin ghosts of young girls. The idea took several years to evolve, and slowly developed into a larger narrative involving a family and a fictitious photographer. I proposed the idea of an installation to Susan Aurinko who enthusiastically agreed to host it at Flatfile. Emily and Sarah were then college age and were not going to be available, but miraculously, a student of mine at Columbia College put me in touch with Kim and Keri Sheets, 21 year old dance majors at Columbia who looked much younger, and the project was off and running. The idea continued to evolve through production, and the story of Dr. Addison became clearer as I wrote a back story for him. My own family history is interwoven in the tale as well, as there really was a Schneberger grocery store at 18th and Fisk in Pilsen.

- Christopher Schneberger

Cast