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.