The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Art Object

Faking It Symposium: Of Spooks, Proofs, and Truths

The symposium "Truth, Lies, and Photographs" was presented in conjunction with the exhibition Faking It: Manipulated Photography before Photoshop, on view October 11, 2012, through January 27, 2013. In this talk, Louis Kaplan, Chair, Department of Visual Studies, and Professor of History and Theory of Photography and New Media at the University of Toronto, outlines the Mumler Spirit Photograph Case. William H. Mumler, a spirit photographer, claimed that he could photograph subjects with the spirits of their deceased relatives and friends. Mumler was eventually tried for fraud, resulting in a heavily debated trial. One of his more notable subjects included Mary Todd Lincoln, who was photographed with the spirit of her deceased husband, Abraham Lincoln.

Part Five of Seven

Recorded November 2, 2012

The exhibition is made possible by Adobe.
This program is made possible by Joyce Frank Menschel.

Video/Audio (1)

James Nares: Street
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Cuisine

Eugène Atget (French, Libourne 1857–1927 Paris)

Date:: ca. 1910
Medium:: Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions:: 21.4 x 17.2 cm. (8 7/16 x 6 3/4 in.)
Classification:: Photographs
Credit Line:: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1990
Accession Number:: 1990.1026.2

This artwork is not on display

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Inscription: Stamped in ink on mount, verso C: "PHOTO E. ATGET//COLLECTION BERENICE ABBOTT//1 W. 67th ST.//COPYRIGHT"; inscribed in pencil on print, verso UC: "Cg. Inv.//(1976-20)", UC[below former]: "Atget//Cuisine[underlined]//#710", LC: "Atget's Kitchen [underlined]"
Provenance

Carlton Gallery, Philadelphia
Notes

For related information and photographs see: The Work of Atget, Volume II, The Art of Old Paris. New York: (MOMA), 1982, pp.19-22; Berenice Abbott believes this photograph represents Atget's kitchen, as per inscription; Atget negative number: 710
See also
Who
Eugène Atget (89)
What
Photographs (32,550)

Albumen silver prints (4,705)
Where
Europe (148,586)

France (52,276)
When
A.D. 1900-present (77,516)
In the Museum
Photographs (29,384)
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
Eugène Atget (1857–1927)

Henri Cartier–Bresson (1908–2004)

Photography and Surrealism

France, 1900 A.D.–present

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Faking It Symposium: Of Spooks, Proofs, and Truths

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Cuisine

Eugène Atget (French, Libourne 1857–1927 Paris)

Met Media

Met Kids

Met Store