Shannon Taggart’s Camera Fantastica: An Interview by Peter Bebergal

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Between the real and its representation is an unseen world that photographer Shannon Taggart has learned to capture with her camera. Shannon is the true medium, channeling the phenomena of belief and its manifestations. Casting herself deep into the culture of spiritualism, Shannon’s work is reminiscent of people like the ethnobotanist Dr. Richard Evans Schultes who studied the ritual use of hallucinogenic plants by indigenous cultures by not only living among them, but participating in their rites. Shannon is an anthropologist of the spirit world, documenting the precarious nature of belief, while allowing for chance, accident, and error to shape whatever truth might emerge. In 2017, we suffer from a demythologizing that is rendering our lives empty and cynical. Shannon’s photographs are a deliberate re-enchantment of the world.

Shannon has launched an Unbound campaign to support her new book SÉANCE: Spiritualist Ritual and the Search for Ectoplasm. She describes the book a work that “seeks to amplify the reflexive relationship between Spiritualism and photography and to explore the ideological, material, geographical, historical and metaphysical correspondences between the two.”  Shannon and I corresponded over email about her work, the new book, and how sometimes the most authentic experiences are those that inhabit the liminal.

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Table-Tipping Workshop at Rev. Jane’s House, Erie, Pennsylvania, 2014.


Looking at your photos recently I was reminded of musician and composer Kim Cascone’s “Errormancy” where he writes: “In the hands of the right artist, a glitch can form a brief rupture in the space-time continuum, shuffling the psychic space of the observer, allowing the artist to establish a direct link with the supernal realm.” Do you see you work as corresponding to this idea of accident and chance?

Yes. I became inspired to experiment with the photographic process after some happy accidents happened with my camera. When I embraced chance and error, it felt as if I had opened a door to someplace else. I began to use photographic artifacts and messy conventions like blur, motion, and flare.  These unpredictable elements rendered the invisible exchanges between mediums and spirits in unforeseeable ways.  In this play with the process, my camera handed over some striking synchronicities. The resulting images consider the conjuring power of photography itself.  

One example happened during a trance demonstration with the English medium Gordon Garforth. I documented Gordon in the depths of a mediumistic state, using long exposures. In every image I made, he looked very different.  I was afraid to show him one of the pictures which oddly seemed to depict him with Hitleresque facial hair on his clean-shaven face. Gordon loved the image, saying it perfectly revealed what he referred to as his “ectoplasmic masks.” He then took me to his home to see a photograph of his Great-Grandfather, who wore the exact same mustache.

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Physical medium Gordon Garforth in trance (left), image of his great-grandfather (right), Stansted, England 2013.


Why do you think the camera can capture the ineffable in way that the eye alone cannot?

Photographs are bizarre slices of reality.  Light and time are its raw materials. They render three-dimensional space compressed, flat and silent.  I like to think of photographs as layered manipulations. It is also interesting to consider that a photographer’s conscious attention embeds itself within the frame. There’s almost a telepathic element of communication that comes through in the work of great photographers.  I don’t know if photography can actually capture the ineffable, but it can refer to it, or resonate with it.

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Smoke scrying experiment with medium Susan Barnes, Arthur Findlay College, Stansted, England, 2016.


So we are really talking about art and its ability to communicate something that is often impossible to capture accurately. In avoiding the literal, it appears you are not trying to “prove” spirits exist.

Exactly. I am not trying to prove or disprove anything. I am trying to delve into the mystery of both Spiritualism and photography.  I am seeking to amplify ambiguity.  I purposely try to blur the line between cause and effect and to confuse the point where one technique stops and the other begins, like a feedback loop. I strive to make pictures that use photography’s own mechanisms to question these spiritual experiences. I am interested in images that contain both mechanical and spiritual explanations, requiring an interpretation to be made by the viewer.  

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The medium Eva C. with materialization of a women’s face, Albert Von Schrenck-Notzing, 1911, courtesy Institute für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene, Freiburg im Breisgau (left) Physical medium Kai Muegge with ectoplasm (materialization of a man’s face), Cassadaga, New York, 2013 (right).

 

Your new book focuses quite a bit on Lily Dale, the Spiritualist community in upstate New York. These are folks that tend to believe wholeheartedly in the existence of spirits and our ability to communicate with them. How did you get them to trust you, given your own mercurial stand on these ideas?

The friends I have photographed in Lily Dale welcomed me in because they knew I was sincerely interested in learning about their religion.  Spiritualists believe in communication with spirits of the dead, but they do not preach a doctrine to others.  The Spiritualists I know invite questions and encourage visitors or clients to be discerning.  And, there is plenty of room in Lily Dale for a variety of viewpoints, which is one of the reasons why I love the town so much.

Have you ever had an experience at Lily Dale or with medium that your photo after the fact felt lacking somehow?

Yes, particularly while photographing mental mediumship.  I’ve witnessed profound moments that were wrought with emotion and intensity that ended up looking very boring when photographed.  I’ve also taken pictures of mundane situations that became something phenomenal through the camera’s mechanism.  Photography creates its own reality.

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First Photo Anomaly—Dorothy with a purple orb that she interprets as her deceased husband Bob’s presence, Lily Dale, New York, 2001.


Your ectoplasm photos are the more “literal” than others insofar as they are capturing supposed supernatural phenomena at play. Can you tell me about the experience of seeing and then photographing this kind of physical mediumship?

Witnessing ectoplasm in real life was a surreal experience, like watching vintage spirit photographs jump to life right before my eyes.  During the ectoplasm séances I tried to make pictures that were as straightforward as possible, because the spiritual had already been fully realized and made visible through the performative action of the medium.  I felt there was nothing to do other than to carefully document the ectoplasmic event.

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Water scrying for spirits, Liverpool, England, 2013.


Some of your other work documents Vodou ceremonies in New York. What is about people in states of spiritual trances that you find so evocative?

I’ve always been interested in psychological space, and also in photographs that somehow manage to speak to its presence.  In religious ritual–when reality blurs and mysterious shifts in the psyche occurs– I find myself fascinated and very drawn to make photographs.

One example of this happened while photographing a woman I knew during a Guédé vodou ceremony in Brooklyn.  I had seen possession before, but never so close. Mambo Carmen’s eyes flickered, then reopened, seemingly free of her. Her body was wrapped, covered in powdered and then presented to the room. We were called to greet this god, Baron Samedithe kingpin Loa of the dead. Someone ushered me over, and I picked up her heavy arms and danced the crisscross salutation over her body, the whole time searching for the Mambo Carmen I knew within her blank stare. A feeling rushed over me that I was actually in the presence of this archetype. I became so excited by this thought that I accidentally dug my fingernails deep into her hands. She did not flinch.

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Physical medium Kevin Lawrenson in trance, Montcabirol Center for Physical Mediumship, Mirepoix, France, 2014.


Magic, both in its stage and spiritual forms, is performative. It requires in both cases an element of trickery (tricking the mind as it were), insofar as we have to suspend disbelief to allow ourselves to be transformed. Do you use tricks in this way?

I embrace the camera’s ability to trick or fool.  Crossing the boundary of what is considered unprofessional in the practice of photography–playing with uncontrollable elements like motion blur, lens distortion, light leaks, flare–feels magical to me.  Giving control over to the process and seeing how the camera can render events differently from the way the eye sees is fascinating.  It’s exciting to be shocked by your own photographs.

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Medium Sylvia Howarth channels a spirit guide, in daylight, while dancing, Reeth, England, 2013.


Why are we often afraid to live in this liminal place when it comes to the occult and the supernatural? There is tendency to either dismiss these experiences and ideas completely, or to accept them without reservation.

Liminal space (the threshold between two opposites) can be unsettling, chaotic and destabilizing.  Betwixt-between states can bring about dramatic shifts or sudden change.  For some, ambiguous positions are uncomfortable.  There is a feeling of stability that comes with a solid viewpoint or a definitive answer.   This question also brings to mind George P. Hansen’s masterful work The Trickster and the Paranormal, an epic resource that directly addresses the inherent mystery of the liminal realm.

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Physical medium Gordon Garforth with enlarged hand, Arthur Findlay College, Stansted, England, 2013.


Can a photograph alter consciousness?

Photography can create shifts in a person’s emotional state or point of view, and this is why it is such an effective means of communication.  Photography also has metaphysical ramifications. It’s ability to trap time, freeze the reflection and preserve a person’s disembodied presence blurs the line between life and death, and allows a type of time travel to occur.  Photographs invite you into a space that only exists within its frame.  

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Where do you place yourself, if at all, in the tradition of spirit photography?

Spiritualism’s photographic past contains some of the most bizarre, absurd, and uniquely unsettling images in the history of photography.  My work builds on this strange record, which has been a resource and an inspiration to me.  My book is an attempt at a next chapter.

 

 

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Taking MDMA as a couple can lead to exciting experiences. Read here to learn how to get the most of of this love drug in your relationship.

Common MDMA Dosage & Microdosing Explained
Microdosing, though imperceivable, is showing to have many health benefits–here is everything you want to know about microdosing MDMA.

Having Sex on MDMA: What You Need to Know
MDMA is known as the love drug… Read our guide to learn all about sex on MDMA and why it is beginning to makes its way into couple’s therapy.

How MDMA is Made: Common Procedures Explained
Ever wonder how to make MDMA? Read our guide to learn everything you need to know about the procedures of how MDMA is made.

Hippie Flipping: When Shrooms and Molly Meet
What is it, what does it feel like, and how long does it last? Explore the mechanics of hippie flipping and how to safely experiment.

How Cocaine is Made: Common Procedures Explained
Ever wonder how to make cocaine? Read our guide to learn everything you need to know about the procedures of how cocaine is made.

A Christmas Sweater with Santa and Cocaine
This week, Walmart came under fire for a “Let it Snow” Christmas sweater depicting Santa with lines of cocaine. Columbia is not merry about it.

Ultimate Cocaine Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety
This guide covers what you need to know about Cocaine, including common effects and uses, legality, safety precautions and top trends today.

NEWS: An FDA-Approved Cocaine Nasal Spray
The FDA approved a cocaine nasal spray called Numbrino, which has raised suspicions that the pharmaceutical company, Lannett Company Inc., paid off the FDA..

The Ultimate Guide to Cannabis Bioavailability
What is bioavailability and how can it affect the overall efficacy of a psychedelic substance? Read to learn more.

Cannabis Research Explains Sociability Behaviors
New research by Dr. Giovanni Marsicano shows social behavioral changes occur as a result of less energy available to the neurons. Read here to learn more.

The Cannabis Shaman
If recreational and medical use of marijuana is becoming accepted, can the spiritual use as well? Experiential journalist Rak Razam interviews Hamilton Souther, founder of the 420 Cannabis Shamanism movement…

Cannabis Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety
Our ultimate guide to Cannabis has everything you want to know about this popular substances that has psychedelic properties.

Cannabis and Ayahuasca: Mixing Entheogenic Plants
Cannabis and Ayahuasca: most people believe they shouldn’t be mixed. Read this personal experience peppered with thoughts from a procannabis Peruvian Shaman.

CBD-Rich Cannabis Versus Single-Molecule CBD
A ground-breaking study has documented the superior therapeutic properties of whole plant Cannabis extract as compared to synthetic cannabidiol (CBD), challenging the medical-industrial complex’s notion that “crude” botanical preparations are less effective than single-molecule compounds.

Cannabis Has Always Been a Medicine
Modern science has already confirmed the efficacy of cannabis for most uses described in the ancient medical texts, but prohibitionists still claim that medical cannabis is “just a ruse.”

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