The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.

[Self-Portrait]

Roger Fenton (British, 1819–1869)

Date:: February 1852
Medium:: Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions:: Image: 12.2 x 9 cm (4 13/16 x 3 9/16 in.)
Classification:: Photographs
Credit Line:: Gilman Collection, Purchase, Harriette and Noel Levine Gift, 2005
Accession Number:: 2005.100.285

This artwork is not on display

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Faking It Symposium: Of Spooks, Proofs, and Truths

[Self-Portrait]

Roger Fenton (British, 1819–1869)

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Faking It Symposium: Of Spooks, Proofs, and Truths

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[Self-Portrait]

Roger Fenton (British, 1819–1869)

Met Media

Met Kids

Met Store