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Aesthetics of Co-registration: Spirit Photography, X-rays and Cinema

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The Modern Supernatural and the Beginnings of Cinema

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Abstract

This chapter broadens its focus outward from cinema to examine the supernatural implications of two photographic practices adjacent to cinema: spirit photography and X-ray photography. The chapter argues that both share an aesthetic principle whereby various layers of information are collapsed onto a single plane, which they share with cinematic double-exposure techniques. This aesthetic would be central to the double-exposure techniques frequently used to represent ghosts in the silent era (and to a lesser extent, beyond it). Carrying over from the discussion of George Albert Smith in the previous chapter, focus is placed on Smith’s The X-ray Fiend (1897), an early film that depicts the use of X-rays.

The original chapter was corrected: Fig. 5.10, an image from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, corresponds with the textual reference on p. 118; Fig. 5.11, an image from The X-Ray Fiend, corresponds with the reference on p. 121.

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  1. Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Murray Leeder

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Leeder, M. (2017). Aesthetics of Co-registration: Spirit Photography, X-rays and Cinema. In: The Modern Supernatural and the Beginnings of Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58371-0_5

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