Living Ghosts

Double exposure is the photographic technique of taking a photo, rewinding the film, and snapping another photo over the previous image. Started in the Victorian Era, photos were taken in quick succession and then overlaid on top of each other. Double exposure photos are often known as “photographic hoaxes,” or to be exact, the taking of two disparate, connected photos and putting them together to create one “false” image. The resulting artwork makes the viewer question: Why did the photographer decide to put these two photos together? What if a seemingly simple, innocent photo is double exposed onto a dark photo? And, most importantly, how does the use of double exposure create a ghostly hoax?
We explore these questions throughout Living Ghosts. This collection of photographs ranges from women exposed over gravestones to men exposed over themselves. In all these photographs, however, double exposure adds a sense of mystery. Each subject seems to have layers, drawing the viewer in, begging the viewer to peel back the layers and get to the haunting truth.
One of the featured photographers, Kristina Rogers, employed dark, sinister imagery to provoke the viewer into a spiritual experience. Her use of motifs such as Victorian era dressed women, gravestones, and nature, creates a nostalgic, spooky atmosphere in which the subjects are placed. Rogers further utilized double exposure to make apparently simple, innocent subjects appear otherworldly and ghostly.
Similarly, featured photographer Simmons Jones’ artwork is very influenced by his dark past. From his experience as a WWII veteran to his bout with alcoholism, each piece he created is an eerie expression of his past. Jones takes wonted images of ordinary people, smiling or smoking, and double exposing them on top of each other to create a sense of sinister chaos, imploring the viewer to question what is going on in the subjects’ heads.
Both Rogers and Jones capitalize on double exposure to hint at a more eerie meaning. This process truly points to the ethos of the play The Drowning Girls, that “No one ever said you have to be dead and buried to be a ghost.”

- Caroline Sillars '24 and Sarah Willoughby '25