The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. First US Edition. Hardcover. Large quarto. 288pp. Pictorial boards. Color & b/w illustrations. First edition, presumed first printing (there is a complete properly sequenced number row on verso of title page). A lavishly produced catalog to accompany a traveling exhibition of works. It comprises over 250 beautifully reproduced photographs, mainly from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, with a heavy emphasis on psychic phenomena, mediums, etc. The essays accompanying the photographs comprise: "Photography and the Occult" by Pierre Apraxine & Sophie Schmit; "Mumler's Ghosts" by Crista Cloutier; "'A Photographer of Marvels': Frederick Hudson and the beginnings of spirit photography in Europe" by Andreas Fischer; "Ghost Dialectics: Spirit photography in entertainment and belief " by Clement Cheroux; "'The Most Disreputable Camera in the World': Spirit photography in the United Kingdom in the early twentieth century" by Andreas Fischer; "Conan Doyle: A study in black and white" by Sophie Schmit; "Photographs of Fluids: An alphabet of invisible rays" by Clement Cheroux; "'La lune au front': Remarks on the history of the photography of thought" by Andreas Fischer; "The Thoughtography of Ted Serios" by Stephen E. Braude; "'The Reciprocal Adaptation of Optics and Phenomena': The photographic recording of materializations" by Andreas Fischer; The "Margery" Case " by Pierre Apraxine; "Flammarion and Eusapia Palladino" by Denis Canguilhem; "Monitoring the Phenomena" by Denis Canguilhem; "Franek Kluski's Casts" by Sophie Schmit; Institutions and Archives; Bibliography; Index; Photographic Credits. Slightly leaned, touch of light shelfwear and just a hint of bruising to the spine-ends. Otherwise a tight, sharp and clean near-Fine copy (no dust jacket issued). A large heavy volume that will require extra additional charges to those automatically quoted, exact price dependent upon destination. Item #71222
ISBN: 9780300111361
Price: $250.00