In the Spirit
Below is a selection of works by Hal Hirshorn that feature in the exhibition In the Spirit Modern Photographers Channel the 19th-Century on show at The Merchants House Museum, New York (29 Sept-28 Nov 2011).
The show includes historic and modern images, including 19th century spirit photographs (considered to be proof of communication with the spirits of departed loved ones) from The Burns Archive and other collections as well as current works by Sally Mann and John Dugdale.
These photographs, as with Hirshorn’s other works, see him fit a 19th century lens to an early 20th century camera, and return to the now-considered archaic process of salt printing to create unique images of his contemporary models.
By the very nature of the process, something sublime, hand-crafted and unique is produced not even the edges of the paper are uniform. All images are 10 x 8 inches and signed to verso by the photographer.
