The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult by Merryn José
From September 27 until December 31, 2005, the Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted t he Harriette and Noel Levine Gallery and the Howard Gilman Gallery of occult photography.
It is not really discussed on the MET’s website if specific photos are genuine images of spirit phenomena. I have, however, seen them myself when I visited the MET exhibition and I can say that there were some very obvious double exposures but never the less I still enjoyed the exhibit.
With photographer Ted Serios, he seemed pretty genuine in his abilities, though there are many who might contest his work. Ted Serios discovered in the 1960s that he could transfer his thoughts onto film simply by pointing a camera at his face. You be the judge.
According to the MET’s website, the photos, “Closer to the scientific revelations of the X-ray (discovered in 1896) than to the double-exposure parlor tricks of 1850s ghost photographs, the more than 120 stunning and surprising works in this exhibition reflect an attempt to reconcile the physical and spiritual worlds.”
The website also explained some background on the era in history that this phenomena transpired:
“As is often the case with spiritualist phenomena, the most intense interest in spirit photography has followed periods of war, when victims’ families were willing to do anything to have one last contact with their loved ones. This was particularly true in the United States after the Civil War and France after the war of 1870 and the Paris Commune. The millions of deaths during World War I also gave rise to a strong revival of spirit photography in Europe.”
In conclusion I would have to say that the exhibit was, overall, interesting and worth the trip, but it is up to you to decide if the photos are genuine proof of life after death.
For more information on the Metropolitan Museum of Art, visit the MET’s website.