I am officially done with
Secure the Shadow and there are a few final remarks I would like to make about it. First, it introduced me to a lot of new,
fascinating topics that I will continue to take interest in. These include: tombstones inlaid with photographs, mourning jewelry, the replacement of photographs with family videos, and an overall interest in the lost art of post mortem photography. Before this book, I didn't really know the act of photographing the dead was a widely accepted practice during the 19
th century, let alone one that could make someone money. With this newly acquired knowledge, I believe I have a better understanding for the medium I love so dearly and perhaps even why photography and death are so closely related.
Moving on, I am now in the midst of exploring the catalogue in conjunction with the exhibition "The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult," held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 2005. This exhibition highlights "what the first spirit photographs revealed of attitudes and beliefs in an America
traumatized by the civil war." Interestingly enough, this was taking place around the same time as post mortem photography. I am excited to draw connections between the two!
I will leave you with an image of
Staveley Bulford, who built an
oversized camera that he and another person could enter, in hopes of observing the mystery of capturing an image of a supernatural being.
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