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Did you capture any spiritualist phenomena during the COVID-19 pandemic? Even with in-person restrictions during lockdowns, photographer Shannon Taggart found a way to capture mediums at work using Skype, Zoom, and FaceTime. The result is “MEDIATRIX: New Work by Shannon Taggart,” an exhibit on display at the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick from May 31 to September 1.
Buckland’s director Steven Intermill was kind enough to give me the heads up about the new exhibit. Let’s check it and Taggart out a bit more.
Shannon Taggart Returns to Buckland
It’s not the first time the museum has featured the photographer’s work. In November 2019, they hosted Strange Frequencies in the Museum. which featured the works of photographer Shannon Taggart, medium Lauren Thibodeau, writer Peter Bebergal, and musician Sam Harmon. The goal was to explore the fuzzy boundaries where matters of spirit and technology connect.
This time “MEDIATRIX: New Work By Shannon Taggart” showcases 25 photographs capturing spiritualist phenomena during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The exhibit is included with admission to the museum.
“It is an honor to be working with Shannon Taggart again,” Intermill said. “My initial reaction to hearing the direction of her new work was ‘of course.’ It’s in the nature of Spiritualism to draw on the technology on hand. Spirit has no boundaries so the tools to communicate shouldn’t either. Our founder Ray Buckland may be most famous for his contributions to American witchcraft, but he also wrote a number of books exploring Spiritualism, psychic phenomenon, and the paranormal, so this work fits perfectly on our gallery walls.”
Capturing Covid-19 Spiritualist Phenomena: Shannon Taggart’s Artist Statement
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to continue photographing mediums despite restrictions on travel and in-person interaction. But photography requires presence. Again I took inspiration from the Spiritualists. They believe that otherworldly communication cannot be bound by time or space. They have a tradition of experimenting with media, technology, and automatic art to bridge the gap between this world and the next. The images here explore these ideas about merging realms, using the internet, a screen, and a camera. They were taken via Skype, Zoom, or FaceTime, collaborating with mediums entranced in distant places.
Since 2001, I have been photographing Spiritualist mediums. The plan was to spend a few weeks taking pictures in Lily Dale, New York, home to the world’s largest Spiritualist community. But by the end of that first summer, I couldn’t leave Lily Dale. I had become fascinated by the history and aesthetics of the religion itself. I learned that Spiritualism was once a seminal force in Western culture, infuencing late nineteenth-century art, science, technology, entertainment, and social reform. This legacy was absent from every textbook I had ever read, including those on photography. I discovered that Spiritualism was the first religion to create an iconography using the medium of photography. I became inspired by Spiritualism’s photographic past—one of the most bizarre, absurd, and uniquely unsettling chapters within the history of photography. My work became an attempt to build on this strange record.
The invitation to present at the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick offers an interesting way to connect with Lily Dale history. Raymond Buckland, the famous Wiccan, was also drawn to Spiritualism. Towards the end of his life, Ray spent summers in Lily Dale. We even sat together in séance in 2003, and an image from that evening is also here in the museum. Spiritualism and Paganism have an uneasy relationship. Spiritualist mediums are careful to distinguish their practice from witchcraft. There are profound differences between mediumship and magic. Spiritualists do not actively invoke change through ritual. They passively open the connection between the worlds to bring forth healing through communication with the dead. But it is undeniable that there are links between the systems, including contact with ancestors and inspiration drawn from nature. Ray, ever the renegade, reminds us to ponder the deep connections between the two.
Examples of Taggart’s Spiritualist Phenomena Photographs
For More Info
Tickets for the museum must be purchased in advance online. Visit https://bucklandmuseum.org/buckland-museum-tickets.
Check-In
If you had a chance to ask Shannon Taggart about her work, what would you want to know?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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I’d ask Taggart if she ever thinks anything paranormal is attached to her images. They are bizarre and compelling and beautiful.
Fantastic question, Priscilla! I was wondering the same thing actually because the images are so haunting, but also how you described them.