“The series of incidents set forth…represent either the most elaborate and ingenious hoax ever played upon the public, or else they constitute an event in human history which may in future appear to have been epoch-making in its character.” This quote by Arthur Conan Doyle could just as easily apply to the spirit photographs of William Mumler as it does to his investigations into the fairy photographs of two English cousins, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Write.
In 1862, while casualties were mounting on the battlefields of the Civil War, William Mumler developed a photo with a ghostly image visible beside the principle subject. This image led Mumler to a new career as a photographer-medium. His mysterious process brought comfort to hundreds of sitters who claimed to recognize the features of deceased loved ones in Mumler’s portraits; but it also brought Mumler before the bench of a New York City judge on charges of fraud.
In 1917, Yorkshire, England, while the carnage of the Great War raged, two young cousins, Elsie Write and Frances Griffiths, appear to capture on film what had never been photographed before, a group of fairies and a gnome. After coming to the attention of author Arthur Conan Doyle, his account in the Strand Magazine of the photos caused a sensation and not entirely welcome attention to the cousins.
This program will explore the similarities between the two cases and the power of art to give physical form to the beliefs of the viewer.