Since the inception of photography in the 1800s, people have tried to photograph things they couldn’t see—ghosts, dreams, prayers, sickness, sin, psychic powers, and even the human soul. However, this integral part of photographic history has often been hidden and obscured.
Exploring the relationship between photography, spiritualism, science, art, and belief, the series Photography and the Invisible, organized by author and photographer Shannon Taggart, traces image-making’s relationship with visible and invisible worlds.
Every Picture is a Ghost: Photography and the Invisible
Spiritualism has been a part of photography since its inception in the late 1800s, but this history has often been hidden or brushed aside. Tracing this intertwined lineage, photographer and author Shannon Taggart explores why the use of photography to capture the invisible is increasingly relevant today.
Psychic Possibilities: Spirit Photography in the 20th Century and Beyond
What can a Chicago bellhop who could project images on film using only his mind, floating orbs, ectoplasm, and spirits communicating via VHS tell us about 20th 20th-century history of photography? More than meets the eye.
Can You Imagine Anything Better? Christine Burgin on Spirit Photography and Conceptual Art
What relationships exist between spirit photography and conceptual art? Publisher and gallerist Christine Burgin discusses the mediumistic work of Hilma af Klint, Jackie Gleason’s library of the paranormal, West Coast conceptual artists, and confronting the unseen.
I Don’t Pretend to Have the Answers: Rik Garrett and Kirlian Photography
From a technique supposed to have measured the “auras” of a living being to that used by a priest who claimed to have photographed the crucifixion, artist and educator Rik Garrett explores photography's alternative processes developed to capture esoteric subjects.
