Thursday Entry: The Fantastic

"Recording media bear witness to the continued existence of the dead where the human eye and ear cannot"
-Pamela Thurschwell

Thurschwell, P. (2003) "Refusing to Give Up the Ghost".
The Disembodied Spirit, 21-30.

Thurschwells' article serves as a prologue to a collection of photographs, which toured galleries under the name The Disembodied Spirit. Her article, as well as the exhibit, explores the connection between the supernatural, in particular, ghosts, and visual media. Ghosts as subject matter appear as often in contemporary photography and cinema as in imagery created during the peak of Spiritualism in England and America during the mid to late 19th century. There is an indelible link between the need for the supernatural during the age of Spiritualism and in current times. Spirit photography was seen by some as a guaranty of an afterlife, which was a great reassurance to many who viewed those early photographs; not only were their loved ones still around, or so it appeared on film, but they could be comforted by the knowledge that their own existence would not come to a halt once they perished. Movies, much like spirit photography promise immortality as well. A loved one can live on through video footage for as long as the medium exists. Thurschwell examines contemporary films dealing with ghosts, such as The Sixth Sense and The Others to support her claim that recording media can provide proof of the supernatural; it is through photographs and audio recordings of spirits in these two films that their respective protagonists accept their own mortality.

The link between the supernatural and photography is one that has intrigued me for years. The sensitivity of the media has been exploited to create many famous hoaxes, but I still believe that film does possess an elusive quality that can record supernatural activity. Many of my staged photographs are built around ghost stories or are shot in locations that are believed to be haunted; this atmosphere, even if it is just in my mind, helps me to better visualize the abstract nature of the absent subject in my work.