The publicity given to the recent attacks on Psychic Photography has been out of all proportion to their scientific value as evidence. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle returned to Great Britain, after his successful tour in America, the controversy was in full swing. With characteristic promptitude he immediately decided to meet these negative attacks by a positive counter-attack, and this volume is the outcome of that decision. We have used the term Spirit Photography on the title-page as being the popular name by which these phenomena are known. This does not imply that either Sir Arthur or I imagine that everything supernormal must be of spirit origin. There is, undoubtedly, a broad borderland where these photographic effects may be produced from forces contained within ourselves. This merges into those higher phenomena of which many cases are here described. Those desiring fuller information on this subject are referred to Photo graphing the Invisible, by James Coates.

Photography and spirit examines images of phantoms, psychical emanations, and religious apparitions.

A charlatan is haunted by sinister secrets and spirits from his past in this Gothic novel of the Reconstruction Era. Boston, 1870. Photographer Edward Moody has gained fame and fortune capturing the images of spirits in his photo portraits. He lures grieving widows and mourning mothers into his studio with promises of catching the ghosts of their deceased loved ones with his camera. But his elaborate hoax is about to yield shocking results . . . While attempting to capture the spirit of an abolitionist senator’s young son, a different spectral figure develops before Moody’s eyes. The camera has seemingly captured the spirit of a beautiful young woman from Moody’s past—the daughter of an escaped slave he knew long ago. He immediately sets out for the Louisiana bayou to resolve their unfinished business?and perhaps save his soul . . .

Edmund Teske (1911-1996) was one of the alchemists of twentieth-century American photography. Over a sixty-year period, he created a diverse body of work that explored the expressive and emotional potentials of the medium. His drive to experiment with sophisticated techniques, such as solarization and composite printing, liberated a younger generation of American photographers; at the same time, his subject matter-sometimes abstract, often homoerotic, and always lyrical and poetic-opened up new areas for photographers to explore. Spirit into Matter is published to coincide with the first major retrospective of Teske's work, to be held at the Getty Museum from June 15 to September 19, 2004. Julian Cox provides an introduction and extensive biocritical essay on Teske that traces his long and varied career, from Chicago in the 1930s to Los Angeles, where the photographer took up residence in 1943. Cox investigates Teske's early associations with such influential figures as Frank Lloyd Wright and Paul Strand and his later associations with iconic figures including filmmaker Kenneth Anger and musicians Ramblin' Jack Elliott and the Doors. The first major study of this fascinating and influential artist, Spirit into Matter will be a dynamic source of information for students of photography, collectors, and all those with an interest in the life and culture of Southern California, where Teske worked for more than fifty years.

From the collections of the British Library and other major archives in Britain and America, this includes work from leading spirit photographers from the 1870s to 1930s.

This latest collection of photographs by Phil Borges of indigenous and tribal people around the world is a testament to the strength and inherent dignity of the human spirit. Reproduced here are 80 hand-toned portraits of individuals who are striving to uphold their cultural diversity and traditions in countries where basic human rights are threatened - from Ethiopia and Kenya to Tibet, and from Mexico to Indonesia. This book is published in association with Amnesty International to mark the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document adopted by the United Nations in 1948 which outlines fundamental rights for all people.