Frederick Hudson Mrs Houghton and Spirit 1872
spirit photograph of Georgiana Houghton, albumen silver photograph
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, NGA Photography Fund: Farrell Family Foundation donation
To mark the exhibition Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, MUMA, in partnership with the Centre for Contemporary Photography are co-presenting a lecture by Martin Jolly, Spectral Stories: A Melbourne Spiritualist’s carte-de-visite album as part of the 2015 Glen Eira Storytelling Festival.
Martyn Jolly is the head of Photography and Media Arts at the ANU School of Art, and is fascinated by the craze for spirit photography in the late 19th century. For this program he will discuss forgotten Victorian era artist Georgiana Houghton and her presence in Australia via the carte-de-visite album of a spiritualist in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia. In most carte-de-visite albums portraits of intimate friends rubbed shoulders with portraits of famous personages, but in this album these images also rubbed shoulders with portraits of spirits. The album documents one person’s passion for the religion of Modern Spiritualism. Its owner was probably a member of the Victorian Association of Spiritualists, and her album uses photographic portraits to map the spiritual, social and political world the Victorian Spiritualists created for themselves.
Date:Saturday 13 June 2015, 2.00-3.30pm
Venue: MUMA, Monash University Caulfield, 900 Dandenong Road
FREE EVENT Bookings: muma.rsvp@monash.edu or ph. 03 9905 4365
For more information about the Glen Eira Storytelling Festival.