Apparition photographer​

For nearly 150 years, the photographic process has been attributed with the apparitional ability to reveal discarnate beings and miraculous phenomena. In the nineteenth century, members of the Spiritualist movement embraced photography as a technological medium that provided evidence of the afterlife and contact with departed loved ones. Today, traditions of supernatural photography continue to thrive, particularly among the Catholic faithful at Marian apparition sites who regularly use cameras to document miraculous phenomena. This article examines the meaning and appeal of beliefs about photography as a revelatory technology, the popular desire for visible proofs of invisible realms, and the ways that the photographic process allows believers to ritually engage the otherworldly, the sacred, and issues of ultimate concern.

Explanation:

fun facts: A preliminary version of this article was presented at the conference, “Visionaries and Vision Hunters,” at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 8–10 February 2007. I am grateful to the organizer, Lisa Bitel, for inviting me to that event and for her continuing encouragement, and thanks also to the other conference participants, and especially Paolo Apolito, William A. Christian, Jr., Carl Diehl, Robert Dobler, Robert Glenn Howard, Mandy Lindgren, Kate Ristau, and Sandra Zimdars‐Swartz for comments and references.