Science Rends the Veil

Salt Lake City, 2020. 1/10. 16 archival pigment ink prints [59 cm x 43 cm] / [23" x 17"] on 100% rag paper made by Hahnemuhle. Titled in pencil at lower left margin. Signed in pencil in lower right margin. 'EB' blind stamp and limitation in pencil in the lower margin at the center. Fine. Printed in an edition of ten copies. "Photography has always been used as a form of objective truth. Following the carnage of the American Civil War, people looked to spirit photographs as proof of the continued existence of their loved ones. This practice involved a human medium who would make contact with the dead, which could then be recorded on a photographic plate. (truncated) The process rapidly spread across the U.S. and to the U.K., but was unreliable and prone to fraud. Trials were held protesting the activities of these spirit photographers with many respected witnesses supporting claims on both sides of the issue. Mumler himself, who photographed Mary Todd Lincoln with the ghost of the slain president, was brought to trial with none other than P.T. Barnum testifying against him. He was acquitted, but ceased to practice and died in poverty.

At the same time, others sought new technologies which, like the camera, could extend human senses and without human intervention conclusively reveal the existence of life beyond the grave. Images in this collection show the use of magnetism, electricity, phonography, chemical substances, and steam. Documents dating from this time describe exotic (and possibly fictional) materials such as magnetic mercury, etheric vapors and resins, and ectoplasmic soils. The annihilation of space and time had seemingly been achieved by science and it is little wonder that its eye would be turned on the greatest of life's mysteries.

The images presented here document some of these inventors and their creations used to manifest discarnate spirits. We may doubt the truthfulness of their claims, but one thing is certain: the camera does indeed let us see the dead again, not as ghostly manifestations, but as meaningful and precious documents of those who once lived." - Edward Bateman

Edward Bateman is an artist and Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Utah. He received his MFA from the University of Utah in 2003 and joined the faculty in 2008. His work is in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harvard University, Art Institute of Chicago, Stanford University, Getty Research Institute, New York University, Columbia University, Amon Carter Museum Library, and George Eastman House, among others. (Inventory #: 10362)