Faces of the Living Dead: The Belief in Spirit Photography

Paralleling the popularity of spiritualism from the 1870s to the 1930s, spirit photography emerged as proof and promotion of contact with the spirit world. While these images today generally bear obvious hallmarks of trickery, notes photography historian Martyn Jolly, and indeed were the subject of intense debate, what remains fascinating is how willingly they were embraced by those who sought evidence of an afterlife and the continued existence of lost loved ones. Jolly's in-depth history is heavily illustrated with images from leading spirit photographers like William Crookes, Ada Deane, William Mumler, and Edward Wyllie, from the archives of the British Library.