Photography and Soul Capture: The Occult History of the Camera

BY NICOLE LAU

When the first photograph was taken in 1826, many indigenous peoples refused to be photographed. They believed the camera could steal their soul, trap their spirit in the image, leave them diminished. Western colonizers laughed at this "superstition."

But were they wrong? A photograph freezes a moment of your existence, captures your likeness, preserves it beyond death. It creates a double—a ghost of you that can be reproduced infinitely, owned by others, outlive your body. The camera doesn't just record light—it captures essence, fixes identity, and creates a kind of immortality.

Photography isn't just technology. It's magic. And the camera is the modern scrying mirror, the mechanical third eye, the device that makes the invisible visible and the fleeting eternal.

The Camera Obscura: Ancient Scrying Device

Before photography, there was the camera obscura ("dark room")—a box or room with a small hole that projects an inverted image of the outside world onto a surface:

• Used since antiquity – Aristotle described it in 4th century BCE
• Alchemical tool – Used by alchemists and natural philosophers to study light and optics
• Artistic aid – Renaissance painters used it to achieve perfect perspective
• Mystical device – The darkened chamber, the inverted image, the light made visible—all had occult associations
• Precursor to photography – The camera obscura became the camera when the image could be fixed chemically

The camera obscura was a liminal device—between light and dark, inside and outside, the real and the representation. It was a portal, a way of seeing that transcended ordinary vision.

The Birth of Photography: Fixing the Shadow

In 1826, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce created the first permanent photograph—an 8-hour exposure of the view from his window. He called the process "heliography" (sun writing). The sun itself was the artist.

Early photography pioneers used alchemical language:

• "Fixing" the image – Alchemical term for making something permanent
• "Developing" the latent image – Revealing what's hidden, like alchemical revelation
• Light-sensitive chemicals – Silver salts that transform when exposed to light, like alchemical transmutation
• The darkroom – A sacred space where transformation happens in darkness

Photography was alchemy—using light, chemistry, and time to transform the invisible into the visible, the fleeting into the permanent.

Spirit Photography: Capturing Ghosts

In the 1860s-1920s, "spirit photography" became a phenomenon. Photographers claimed to capture images of the dead appearing alongside the living:

William H. Mumler: The First Spirit Photographer

• 1861 – Mumler discovered a "ghost" in a self-portrait (likely a double exposure)
• Business boom – Grieving families paid for portraits with their deceased loved ones
• Mary Todd Lincoln – Photographed with the "ghost" of Abraham Lincoln behind her
• Fraud trial (1869) – Accused of trickery, but acquitted due to lack of proof

Most spirit photography was fraud—double exposures, manipulated negatives, accomplices in sheets. But the phenomenon reveals something profound: people believed photographs could capture what the eye couldn't see, that the camera had access to invisible realms.

Thoughtography: Photographing Thoughts

Ted Serios (1918-2006) claimed he could project mental images onto Polaroid film:

• The "gismo" – A small tube he held in front of the camera lens
• Mental projection – He would concentrate intensely, and images would appear on the film
• Scientific study – Psychiatrist Jule Eisenbud studied him, published The World of Ted Serios (1967)
• Controversy – Skeptics claimed trickery; believers saw proof of psychic photography

Whether fraud or genuine, thoughtography asks: Can consciousness affect matter? Can intention imprint itself on film? Can the mind create images without a camera?

The Aura and the Photograph

Walter Benjamin's essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) introduced the concept of "aura":

• Aura = The unique presence of an artwork, its "here and now," its authenticity
• Photography destroys aura – Infinite reproduction eliminates uniqueness
• But creates new magic – The photograph becomes a new kind of talisman, a portable presence

Benjamin was describing a spiritual quality in secular language. The aura is the soul of the artwork. Photography doesn't destroy it—it redistributes it, democratizes it, makes it reproducible.

A photograph of a loved one becomes a talisman. A photograph of a saint becomes an icon. A photograph of a traumatic event becomes a curse. The image carries energy, presence, power.

Diane Arbus: Photographing the Shadow

Diane Arbus (1923-1971) photographed society's outcasts—dwarfs, giants, transgender people, nudists, the mentally ill:

• Confrontational intimacy – Direct eye contact, unflinching gaze, no sentimentality
• The uncanny – Her subjects are familiar yet strange, human yet alien
• Shadow work – She photographed what society repressed, what people refused to see
• Tragic end – Suicide at 48, after years of depression

Arbus said: "A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know."

She was photographing the Jungian shadow—the rejected, the feared, the other. Her camera was a tool for making the unconscious conscious, for forcing viewers to confront what they'd rather ignore.

Minor White: Photography as Meditation

Minor White (1908-1976) approached photography as spiritual practice:

• Equivalents – Following Alfred Stieglitz, he photographed clouds, rocks, and landscapes as visual metaphors for inner states
• Zen influence – Studied Zen Buddhism, used photography as meditation
• Sequence as narrative – Arranged photos in sequences that told spiritual stories
• The camera as mirror – "Be still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence"

White taught that photography isn't about capturing what's out there—it's about revealing what's in here. The camera is a mirror. The photograph is a self-portrait, even when it depicts a landscape.

White's Teaching Method:

1. Meditate before shooting – Quiet the mind, become receptive
2. Wait for the image to reveal itself – Don't impose, allow
3. Photograph the feeling, not the thing – What does this rock make you feel? Photograph that
4. Sequence intentionally – Arrange photos to create a visual koan, a meditation

Francesca Woodman: The Disappearing Self

Francesca Woodman (1958-1981) created haunting self-portraits exploring identity, embodiment, and disappearance:

• Long exposures – Her body blurred, ghostly, dissolving into space
• Abandoned spaces – Decaying rooms, peeling wallpaper, liminal architecture
• Partial visibility – Hiding behind mirrors, furniture, or motion blur
• The vanishing woman – Exploring female invisibility, the erasure of self
• Tragic death – Suicide at 22, leaving behind 800+ photographs

Woodman's work asks: What happens when you photograph your own disappearance? Can the camera capture the process of becoming invisible? Is the photograph proof of existence or evidence of erasure?

Her images are visual hauntings—she's there and not there, present and absent, embodied and ghostly. The camera captured her in the act of vanishing.

The Selfie: Modern Self-Portraiture as Ritual

The selfie is often dismissed as narcissism, but it's also a spiritual practice:

• Self-witnessing – Seeing yourself as others see you, the mirror made permanent
• Identity construction – Curating which version of yourself to present
• Ritual repetition – Daily selfies as meditation on change, aging, transformation
• Digital offerings – Posting selfies as offering your image to the collective, seeking validation/connection
• Memento mori – Each selfie is a reminder: this is what I looked like today, and I will never look exactly like this again

The selfie is the democratization of portraiture. Everyone can create their own icon, their own talisman, their own proof of existence.

The Shadow Side:

• Dysmorphia – Obsessive self-surveillance, never satisfied with the image
• Performative identity – Living for the camera, not for the moment
• Validation addiction – Self-worth tied to likes and comments
• The curated lie – Presenting a false self, hiding the shadow

The selfie can be spiritual practice or spiritual bypass. The difference is intention and awareness.

The Constant Beneath the Lens

Here's the deeper truth: A photograph, a painted portrait, and a death mask are all doing the same thing—capturing and preserving a person's likeness, creating a double that outlives the original, making the ephemeral permanent.

This is Constant Unification: The camera's chemical process, the painter's pigment, and the sculptor's plaster are all tools for the same invariant practice—fixing identity in time, creating images that function as talismans, and attempting to cheat death through representation.

Different technologies, same magic.

Photography as Modern Scrying

Scrying is the practice of gazing into a reflective surface (crystal ball, mirror, water) to receive visions. Photography is mechanical scrying:

• The lens as crystal ball – Focusing light, revealing what's hidden
• The viewfinder as portal – Framing reality, selecting what to see
• The photograph as vision – Showing what was there but unseen
• The darkroom as ritual chamber – Where the latent becomes manifest

Photographers are modern seers, using technology to reveal truth, capture moments, and make the invisible visible.

Kirlian Photography: Capturing the Aura

In 1939, Semyon Kirlian discovered that photographing objects in high-voltage electric fields created glowing coronas around them:

• The "aura" effect – Luminous halos around living things
• Claimed to show life force – Believers said it captured the biofield, prana, or chi
• Scientific explanation – Corona discharge, moisture, and electrical conductivity
• Spiritual interpretation – Proof of the aura, the soul made visible

Whether Kirlian photography captures the aura or just electrical discharge, it reveals a truth: we want to believe the camera can see what we cannot, that technology can prove the spiritual.

Practicing Photography as Spiritual Practice

You can use photography as meditation and magic:

1. Meditative photography – Walk slowly, breathe, wait for images to reveal themselves
2. Daily photo practice – One photo per day, documenting your inner state through outer images
3. Intentional self-portraits – Photograph yourself as different archetypes (warrior, lover, sage, fool)
4. Ancestor photography – Create altars with photos of deceased loved ones, honor them
5. Destroy photos ritually – Burn or bury photos of past selves, relationships, or traumas as release ritual
6. Create photo talismans – Print meaningful images, carry them, use them as meditation objects
7. Photograph the invisible – Try to capture emotions, energy, or spiritual states

The camera is a tool. The question is: are you using it to escape reality or to see it more clearly?

The Ethics of Soul Capture

Indigenous peoples' fear of photography wasn't irrational—it was prophetic:

• Surveillance capitalism – Your image is data, harvested and sold
• Facial recognition – Your face is a biometric signature, tracked and catalogued
• Deepfakes – Your likeness can be stolen, manipulated, weaponized
• Permanent record – Photos never truly disappear, haunting you forever
• Consent violations – Street photography, paparazzi, revenge porn

The camera does capture something of the soul—not literally, but functionally. Your image has power. Protect it. Use it consciously. Don't give it away carelessly.

Conclusion: The Camera as Third Eye

Photography proves that technology and magic aren't opposites—they're partners. The camera is a mechanical third eye, a device for seeing beyond ordinary perception, for fixing the fleeting, for making the invisible visible.

Every photograph is a spell—a moment frozen, a reality fixed, a double created. Every photographer is a magician, using light and chemistry (or pixels and code) to transform the ephemeral into the eternal.

The indigenous peoples were right: the camera does capture the soul. Not by stealing it, but by preserving it, multiplying it, making it immortal.

The question isn't whether photography is magic. The question is: what kind of magic are you making with your camera?

The camera doesn't lie. But it doesn't tell the truth either. It reveals what you're ready to see.