The Perfect Medium

Ghosts, spirit séances, levitation, auras, ectoplasm...extraordinary photographs of these and other paranormal phenomena will be on display in "The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult," an exhibition devoted to the historical intersections between photography and the once wildly popular interest in spiritualism.

"The Perfect Medium" will bring together some 120 photographs culled from public and private archives throughout Europe and North America. The exhibition focuses primarily on the period from the 1860s to World War II, when occult and paranormal phenomena were most actively debated and both supporters and skeptics summoned photographs as evidence. Approaching the material from a historical perspective, the exhibition presents the photographs on their own terms, without authoritative comment on their veracity.

The exhibition is made possible in part by The Francesca Ronnie Primus Foundation, Inc.

The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, with the assistance of the Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene, Freiburg im Breisgau, and The Howard Gilman Foundation, New York.

Pressetext

The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult
Ort: The Harriette and Noel Levine Gallery and the Howard Gilman Gallery