Ghosts, apparitions, angels, spiritual visitations and views of the future

Anon.
The Ghost
1860s

Stereocard, detail
Stereoviews: Stereoviews and Fine 19th & 20th Century Antique Photographs
Courtesy of David Spahr (www.stereoviews.com)

LL/30160

There can be few photography books as enjoyable as The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult by Clement Cheroux, Pierre Apraxine, Andreas Fischer, Denis Canguilhem and Sophie Schmit (Yale University Press, 2004). It takes us into the merging of the real and spiritual worlds with photographs of séances with automatic writing, table-tilting, and ectoplasm excreted by mediums as a physical manifestation of a haunting. It is a story of photography, science, legal proceedings and downright fraud.

This online exhibition of mostly nineteenth century material takes us into the ghostly world of grieving children in church yards, hair raising incidents, protective angels and unexpected apparitions on lonely roads.

Thanks to everybody for providing examples and particularly to Kevin Yee for nudging me along.

There is an online exhibition on Luminous-Lint.