Faces of the Living Dead
Martyn Jolly
- Page Count: 160
- Size:
- Format: Paperback with Bubble Sticker Tip-Ins
- Publication Date: June 2006
- Price:
- ISBN: 0-9772827-3-2
Faces of the Living Dead offers an examination of paranormal photography’s popularity during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Extensively illustrated throughout with previously unpublished black & white, as well as duotone, photographs from the British Library’s archives, Faces of the Living Dead offers a beautifully focused study of this movement. The fraudulent nature of the photographs in this book is clear, and that is why it is such a fascinating study. Tied to historical eras of war and destruction, spirit photography enjoyed wide acceptance, as laypeople and celebrities alike looked for answers and emotional connections unavailable to them in the temporal world.
As yet another perspective on the history of visual communication, Faces of the Living Dead offers a timeless insight into the human condition. The same as Photoshop can eradicate anything considered undesirable from photographs today, the images and stories in this book are the Photoshop of their time, providing the means to cope with the inexplicable and undesirable experiences of modernity.
Martyn Jolly is the Head of Photomedia at the Australian National University School of Art. He has been researching spirit photography for several years as part of a wider interest in the affective power of the photograph. He is also an artist and his work has been exhibited throughout Australia and internationally.
Illustrated in black & white, and duotone.
