Dieselpunks Interview - Photographing the afterlife with JR Pepper.
When Spiritualism was all the rage, having a dead relative make an appearance in your portraits could mean big money for a shrewd photographer. By taking a ghostly looking photo ahead of time and then reusing the negative, our dark room magicians could conjure all sorts of hidden shades in their work.
Fast forward 100 years, and you can still find these grifters haunting America's cities, except this time they're capturing spirits for the sake of art. Most notable of the bunch is New York artist JR Pepper. For years now, Pepper has been recreating the photographic techniques of Mumler and Buguet, creating her own contemporary blend of spirit photography.