From Colin Wheeler - Duane Michals - The Old Man Kills the Minotaur, 1976

The Old Man Kills the Minotaur by Duane Michals, 1976 Silver Gelatin Print

First off, Duane Michals is one of my all-time favorite photographers. His photographs are so engaging and each give a different feel and tell a different story. But to me... a lot of his work has a very uncanny feeling. This particular image is a part of a sequence that Duane Michals shot all entitled "The Old Man Kills the Minotaur". What stood out the most about this photo in an uncanny way is the eerie feeling it gives because of the lighting and the movement effects that Michals employed in this image. Another reason this photo seemed uncanny is the emptiness of the space (which is in a large number of Michal's works). Duane Michals often incorporates text with his photo sequences to help employ emotion and philosophy. I think it's pretty obvious that his work exudes emotion and that emotion to me is a strong sense of the uncanny.It even reminds me of spirit photography because of the "spectral mist" that is created by the lighting and movement. I also thought it looked like a representation of a dream as well because of the aesthetics and subject matter of this image.

Melies - Up-to-date Spiritualism (1900)

And since we are focusing mainly on photography, here's some Man Ray, another Surrealist. This is La Marquise Casati.

Joel Peter Witkin, "Dog on a Pillow", 1994. Gelatin silver print.

I first encountered this image in Tom Beck's cultures of photography class, during an overview of Joel Peter Witkin's work. He is a strange man and artist across the board, traveling the country to photograph the grotesque. He explains it best in the afterword of Gods of Earth and Heaven: “I need physical marvels—a person, thing or act so extraordinary as to inspire wonder: someone with wings, horns, tails, fins, claws, reversed feet, head, hands. Anyone without a face. Pinheads, dwarfs, giants […] Active and retired sideshow performers, contortionists, anyone with a parasitic twin, people who live as comic book heroes […] Beings from other planets. Anyone bearing the wounds of Christ. Anyone claiming to be God. God.” Inspired by his parents' differing religious views, a fatal accident he claims to have witnessed as a child, and a three year stint as a war photographer in Vietnam, Witkin is drawn to the sorts of images that originate in nightmares. The most disturbing part of his photography is the lack of context: we don't know why the large naked woman reclines with breathing tubes in her mouth, or why the old man is poised to drill a nail into his own, and that makes it all the more creepy. "Dog on a Pillow" has the same disorienting effect... Whose face is that? Is it real? Is the dog itself dead or alive? Most importantly, why? It is precisely this ambiguity that causes the uncanny effect.

Troy Colby, Mystical Portraits, Beloit, KS

I found this image searching through some of my favorite photographer's works. I googled Troy Colby's Mystical Portraits remembering how strange they were. This photograph is uncanny to me along with the rest of the series because you have these two children in masks who are what looks like "playing". Its a very dark scene here. Of course it staged, but i find it to be this dark play time that "normal children" don't do. You see this bunny girl choking a younger male with a mask with a chain. How is he being lifted in the air? Why is she choking him? Even though you can't see her face with the mask it looks as if she could possibly be enjoying this. Their close date the photo with the dress. Although this photo was taken at a different time. I like that the edges of the photo are dark which enhances the dark feel.

This is Europe After The Rain II painted by the Surrealist Max Ernst, 1940-42. Many factors give this an uncanny feeling for me, the most of which is the method with which Ernst applied the paint. The method is called decalcomania in which paint is applied using another surface such as paper or glass. The second surface is then peeled away resulting in bizarre 3 dimensional paint. Here, the landscape looks as if it has melted or is rotting. Another uncanny element is the bird headed soldier, a common motif for Ernst. The subject of this piece is political in nature but even if you don't know it's origins, it remains uncanny, maybe even more so. Many Surrealist paintings utilized themes which were recognizable but then distorted in a way the viewer wasn't used to. This brings to mind many things we've discussed in class such as the living doll. Surrealists also gained much of their inspiration from dreams, the subconscious, automatism, and more specifically, the writings of Freud which were extremely popular at the time. 

From Brittany Moore - The Crozet Tunnel

Recently a friend told me about the Crozet tunnel, which is a historic railroad tunnel, built in 1850. At the time it was the largest tunnel in the world reaching 4,237 feet in length, almost one mile long. The tunnel has been abandon for many years, but people still hike through the tunnel today. I originally was told about the different sounds that are and can be created through a tunnel this long; I also think there is something uncanny about the natural sounds we can’t always explain (the sounds happening in a dark tunnel). The thing that appeals most to me about this image is the idea of a dark tunnel/ entrance into a dark space. Not knowing where the opening will lead and what is inside, this can convey a strong feeling of the uncanny. In researching the tunnel one of the articles said it was “without doubt one of the most eerie places I’ve ever been”, I think you can get a sense of that feeling from this picture. You can also see a fog like shape through the middle of the entrance to the tunnel, which as Marina Warner's said “the camera could apprehend this spirit body in a way that fallible human eyes could not.” There are stories that the tunnel is haunted by the Irish immigrants who work and died building the tunnel and it is up to the viewer to decide if this is fog or spirits caught on camera. Overall the most interesting aspect of this photo is the mysterious or unknown realm within.