ARCHIVES: ARTICLES
The College Archives are a unique collection of documentary material dating back to the earliest years of Victorian Spiritualism. We are in the process of digitalizing the material, to make it available to educational & research institutions and eventually also the general public. This section of the website will be expanded accordingly.
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Andreas Fischer
A PERFECT MEDIUM - PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE OCCULT
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With the onset of 'modern spiritualism' in 1848, communication with the other side had become a mass social movement in which the photographic method played a major role. This particular means seems to have been made for the spirit world, for it always had an aura of magic about it, particularly in those early days. Like spiritualistic mediums, it worked at the very point that divided the visible and the invisible worlds. Many occultists could understand it as a tool that was as sensitive to communications from the other world as the physical eye is to this world. Naturally it was of great significance that at the same time the photographic instrument seemed to provide an objective technique for documentation and was seen to be an adequate tool for the positivistic view of reality that predominated in science in those days. Thus, in 1861, the first spirit photographs became available in public – enjoying great popularity until about 1930. Particularly in Great Britain, numerous mediums specialized in producing spirit photographs (the first image was made by Frederick Hudson in April 1872 in London). They were supported by many people, among them well-known individuals like the scientist Alfred Russel Wallace (in 1875 Hudson took a photograph which showed the figure of Russel Wallace together with the spirit of his deceased mother), or after World War 1, the writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The history of spirit photography as a whole was characterised by emotional controversies, with exposures over fraudulent techniques, legal court cases etc., but also by an unshakeable belief in the genuineness of the pictures.
Apart from spirit photography, the photography of supposed human radiations, like auras and vital forces or fluids, played an important role. It forged the central idea in many occult systems that invisible rays representing certain physical, psychical or transcendental states surround the human body. It gained particular significance in France after the discovery of X-ray photography in 1896. At the turn of the century such photography became almost officially recognized by the natural sciences until it disappeared from public perception after it had partly been exposed as a photographic deception. In the context of such experiments, the first attempts into thought-photography were also undertaken and widely discussed.
Photographs documenting mediumistic experiments were of central importance for the beginning of scientific occultism; the purpose of these photographs was not only to control the origin of the alleged phenomena, but also to present a permanent record to a critical public. For example, there were photographs of so-called spiritual materialisations (these are formations of visible spirit forms by the medium) and photographs of experiments into telekinesis (the first photographs appeared in the 1890's showing the levitation of a table by the Italian medium Eusapia Palladino).
A selection of approximately two hundred photographs from the described area will be presented at the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie in Paris (i) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (ii). The photographs mainly originate from 1870 to the 1930's and they will be divided into three parts (corresponding to their given descriptions): (1) spirit photography, (2) photography of fluids and (3) photographs related to other mediumistic experiments. The exhibition will contain very rare original prints from William H. Mumler, who discovered spirit photography (including the famous portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln and the spirit of Abraham Lincoln). Also a large selection of photographs from British mediums will be shown, for example by Frederick Hudson, F.M. Parkes, Richard Boursnell, William Hope, Ada Emma Deane or the largely unknown Madge Donohue, who produced in the 1920's most remarkable 'Skotographs' (they are photographs made without the use of a camera and ordinary light). The section of the photographs of fluids contains, among others, early electrographs from around 1895 showing the aura of human hands from Jacob Narkiewicz-Jodko (Jodko anticipated the invention of so-called Kirlian photography by about fifty years). Most remarkable are the photographs made by the Frenchman Louis Darget from 1895 onwards. He is supposed to be the first who made not only many experiments in thought-photography, but also produced colour photographs on glass plates mainly showing human fingerprints with aura forms. Also presented are thoughtographs of Ted Serios, who became famous in the 1960's due to the investigation of Jule Eisenbud in Denver. The third part starts with two of the famous photographs of the phantom 'Katie King', produced in 1874 by the distinguished scientist William Crookes. Another prominent scientist who investigated these phenomena was the late Nobel-prize winner Charles Richet. In 1905 he registered on photographic plates a phantom named 'Bien Boa'. Other spectacular prints in this section include the medium 'Margery' (Crandon) producing ectoplasm in 1925. A number of prints also show the levitation of different objects by different mediums.
It is most remarkable that such renowned museums are ready now to exhibit a selection of photographs from the history of psychical research. The aesthetic appeal of the photographs plays an important role in such a decision. In this regard the exhibition continues the historical tradition of the legendary exhibition 'Film und Foto' of 1929, a milestone of the avant-garde photographic art. It included twelve prints of materialisation-phenomena of Albert von Schrenck-Notzing. A further reason for today's interest is attributable to the growing knowledge that such images (and history of occultism in general) can contribute to a broader understanding of the social and cultural history in the 19th and 20th century. Only recently it was recognized that occult and spiritualistic phenomena reflect a broad social movement, which has also inspired many cultural fields, for example literature and fine arts, especially the beginning of modern art. But such a topic is not only of historical interest, it also underlines the fact that such phenomena are still of great interest to many people today.
The selection of the photographs (which consist of only original prints and a few modern prints from the original negatives) is not only connected with the historical meaning of a given case and its aesthetic quality, but underlines the fact that obviously many photographs as well as other materials from the history of psychical research have disappeared or were destroyed. Many personal files of researchers went missing after their owners'death; (as early as 1843 the French writer L.A. Cahagnet described such a case, where valuable papers of a mesmerist were given to a spice dealer) (iii), societies and organisations disappeared, and many items were destroyed by natural disasters or as a result of wars. There are, however, a few institutions with a long history which fortunately still maintain such archives. They contain most valuable documents for understanding the history of spiritualism, mediumship and related topics. In the Anglo-Saxon countries, one should mention, of course, the British and American Societies for Psychical Research (SPR in London and ASPR in New York) and also the College of Psychic Studies in London. The latter organisation houses a remarkable collection of historical photographs. Among them are many spirit photographs produced by Frederick Hudson, about which Frank Podmore remarked in 1902 that they already were difficult to obtain (iv). They form part of the papers of Rev. Stainton Moses, who was one of the first who had written a study on the subject. Of special interest are the already mentioned scotographs from Madge Donohoe. Besides some other institutions connected with the history of psychical research (v), there are also a few private and public collections, like the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Gilman Paper Company Collection in New York who have kindly agreed to lend some rare pictures to the exhibition.
It is the intention of the curators of the exhibition and the authors of the catalogue (vi) to take a neutral and, especially, an unprejudiced attitude towards the topic. It was not their task to deny the belief in such photographic phenomena or, on the other hand, to support their reality. Within the limit of such a project, the motivation that gave birth to such images, the controversies and the historical background, should all be presented. On such a basis a further elaboration of such materials can be pursued. Such an exhibition project is also connected with the hope – and this would be a justification in itself – that the cultural value and historical uniqueness of such pictures is increasingly recognized. This could add to the readiness to secure collections of this kind. It could be a further goal to develop a common strategy aimed at the documentation, the long-term security and public accessibility for researchers and other interested people.
(i) The title of the exhibition is in French: Le Troisieme oeil. La photographie et l'occulte
(ii) The exhibition in New York will have a reduced size
(iii) 'Die Geheimnisse des Jenseits', Leipzig,p.4
(iv) 'Modern Spiritualism', London, Vol.2, p118
(v) For example the 'Institute metapsychique international' (IMI) in Paris, or the 'Institut fur Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene' (IGPP) in Freiburg, Germany
(vi) The catalogue will be published in a French and an English edition by Gallimard in Paris. It will contain reproductions of every exhibited photograph, some articles and a bibliography on the subject