From Ashley Vangemeren - Henry Peach Robinson, "Fading Away," 1858

Henry Peach Robinson, Fading Away, albumen print photograph, 1858
I had first seen this print in person at the NGA during their “Faking It: Manipulated Photography before Photoshop” exhibition. For this post, I Googled the photographer’s name and the image came up, like magic!

Robinson used five negatives to create this scene of a family surrounding a young woman/loved one on her deathbed. The intent was to be seamless, hence why the tones are evenly rendered. When it was produced, controversy rose surrounding the subject of the image, questioning whether or not death was an “appropriate” subject for photography. Though for whatever reason, death wasn’t the first thing that struck me upon viewing the print. It was simply the process and intent to piece together a world in which we, the viewer, interpret as authentic and natural when clearly something feels strange, out of place and uncanny.
Ever since I saw it last year, I’ve been fascinated by the print. I’m intrigued by the concept of the constructed image and truly wish I could focus on the technical aspects that initially caught my eye i.e. the velvet quality of the grain, the rich tones, etc. Though as I keep studying the image, I start feeling uncomfortable. I feel uneasy and trapped in something I know isn’t “real” or something that doesn’t seem like it “actually happened” and feel as though the event is legitimate. I find myself desperately trying to find flaws that would help me escape the illusion created but I can’t. I’m perplexed by the implied symmetry of the composition, and the way the dying woman in white mirrors the woman dressed in black. I connect it with the black/death white/life parallel, which feels to be an uncanny “coincidence”. It also speaks to the concept of mirrors and its relationship to the uncanny.
I also find the expressions and body language of the family around her to be strange, as though they are emotionless statues gazing beyond her form. Nothing feels truly present or gone; everything feels like it’s in passing, like a scene reflecting purgatory or limbo. In fact, the only figure that I could read as believably present is the man facing the window, only because his body language seems appropriate. Yet faceless, even eye-less figures appear un-human because there’s nothing to connect to. My uncertainty and hesitation to further explore the print, in fear of being trapped, puts the print in the position of the uncanny and the realm it supports.

From Lorenzo DeAlmeida - Photograph by Gary Hoffman

This photograph was taken by Gary Hoffman on September, 14th 2013 at the Rock Creek Churchyard and Cemetery here in Washington, DC. Hoffman, a Washington DC artist, is well known for his uncanny and bewitching photographs. Indeed, this image creates the illusion that the statue is is motion, coming forward in space, and is crying or perhaps bleeding. Hoffman achieved this ominous, ghost-like effect by simply changing the color settings of his camera. He focuses on the commonness of his surroundings and frames his shots carefully, creating extraordinarily mesmeric narratives.
While this photograph has not been superimposed with ghostly images, such as those we read about in this weeks essays, Hoffman successfully achieves this ghostly quality by creating a dramatic and unsettling image, with a dissonance that both repels and attracts us; it is undoubtedly related to what scares us, what makes us feel uncomfortable. In truth, what strikes me the most about this image is its ambiguity, its ability to arouse feelings of uneasiness, darkness and solitude.

The Uncanny Image - PLEASE POST AN IMAGE BY 3 pm OCT 16 for discussion in class

Following on Marina Warner's assertion that there is something uncanny in the nature of the image (as in mirror images and shadow images), please select an image that strikes you as arguably an instance of the Uncanny.
POST IT on the blog with
IDENTIFICATION - Artist(s), medium, whatever you know about its originating circumstances
SOURCE - Where and how did you find it?
JUSTIFICATION - How does it appear to you to constitute an uncanny image?

Your selections will be supplemented by works from fine-art photography and the world of "spirit photography"--spooky stuff. Background for that topic is provided in the reading from The Perfect Medium, the catalogue of the Metropolitan Museum show on uncanny photography.

DO extend beyond fine-art images if you wish. But please keep this distinction in mind: Our subject is the uncanny image, and we're asking whether there's some tendency to evoke the Uncanny in image-making and -viewing. That's quite different from using the image as supposed documentary evidence of the existence of another world or dimension. Please select what you consider a provocative but also relevant and productive image.

PS Boo.

The Haunting (1963) - Please comment by 9 am Tuesday, Oct 1, in response to the film or to your reading of Poe's stories

Although we generally like to steer away from the most overused resource on the net, the Wikipedia entry on The Haunting  is a pretty good introduction to the film. It offers a handy guide to its key themes along with neat background facts/gossip about the production, and a restrained treatment of the key issue that may concern us in the context of this course:
How Uncanny is the isolation of Eleanor as the focal point of the film? How deftly does the film navigate between a reduction of the phenomena experienced by the characters (because it's clearly not "all in Eleanor's head") to either a psychological or a supernatural explanation? How does the story, including Eleanor's fantasies/recollections/disclosures, turn on Repression as an instigator of the Uncanny response--even if it doesn't fit neatly into Freud's scheme?

You may also enjoy:
Patrick Samuel's essay on The Haunting at the Static Mass Emporium website, which is a "deconstruction" of a key, famously frightening scene.

Another issue I hope you'll consider as you view and review The Haunting: The term "Cinematic space" may be used in two ways (at least). The first is the illusionistic image within a frame or between cuts--How does cinema create spaces on screen? The second is the imaginary space created in the viewer's mind by editing practice (and sometimes special effects). "Haunted house" films are a particularly convincing example of the power of cinematic practice to evoke a fantasy world--that has never existed in three-dimensional reality--and especially of the way that imaginary space can affect us emotionally and psychologically. (Consider how this film takes off from "The Fall of the House of Usher," the classic haunted-house gothic novels of the 18th-19th century such as Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables, or for that matter, the novel upon which this film is based, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. It seems as if cinema were made to depict haunted houses; early experimental filmmakers were drawn to "Usher".)  The Haunting is sometimes praised and sometimes panned as a horror movie, but few critical treatments note this outstanding feature: Its capacity to identify domestic space created onscreen--with its obscurities and gaps--with characters and emotions so that we really develop a virtual experience of the Uncanny.

To provoke discussion next week, please offer your comments on either:
1. The role of Eleanor or of the house as a focus for the Uncanny in the film, or any other aspect of the film that seems to you worth considering as an indicator of the Uncanny;
OR
2. The position of the narrator and narration--who tells the story and how the story is told--in one of our readings from Poe, or any other aspect of a story, or common point among the stories, as an indicator of the Uncanny.

In a way, of course, we are still asking: What's spooky about these movies and stories? And why is the spookiness pleasurable? But I hope that beyond that, we might ask some questions about how and why we succumb to illusions in art.

You may find The Haunting online at Veoh, though I don't know how reliable that is. Our Poe short stories are online in the Required Readings folder on Blackboard, and accessible through links in the sidebar to the right of this post.

Please comment by 9 am Tuesday, Oct 1, in response to the film or to your reading of Poe's stories. 

PS A similar set of themes and settings is to be found in the 1973 film The Legend of Hell House (click on link for Wikipedia entry). (The screenplay was adapted by the respected sci-fi/fantasy author Richard Matheson from his novel.) A key feature is the association of sexual repression, insecurity, and "perversions" with malevolent ghosts. Hmmmm . . .

Blog Reflection - Freud's Uncanny - Please comment by 9 am Tuesday, Sept 17 in reply to this post

The central influence of Freud's version of the Uncanny is evident from the fact that our key modern readings in theory derive from it: Garber, Todorov, and Jackson all use Freud's ideas as a point of departure.
But that's not to say that his statement on the Uncanny entirely satisfies all readers.

To provoke discussion at our next session, please post a comment here briefly (in a paragraph or so) evaluating Freud's conception of the Uncanny, taking up any or all of these questions:

What are the strengths and weaknesses of his definition?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of his analysis?
How fair and useful is his reply to Jentsch?
Does his formulation give you something meaningful to work with when you consider films, stories, artworks that you consider instances of the Uncanny?

BLOG REFLECTION - The Fantastic, the Sublime, and the Uncanny - PLEASE COMMENT BY 9 am TUESDAY, SEPT 10

To help guide discussion at our next session on Wednesday, please select one of the theoretical readings up to this date:
Edmund Burke on the Sublime
Tzvetan Todorov on the Fantastic
Rosemary Jackson on Fantasy
Noel Carroll on Horror

and assess the contribution that it makes to the understanding of works of art (literature, film, etc.).
   In one paragraph, state its main idea and examine whether and how it gives us a valid, useful principle for understanding the appeal of works that frighten, confuse, or distress us. You may wish to apply your chosen author's idea to a specific work--a film, story, artwork you already know--to see if it deepens your understanding of the selected work.