A Communion of Shadows - by Rachel McBride Lindsey (Paperback)

About the Book

-When the revolutionary technology of photography erupted in American culture in 1839, it swiftly became, in the day's parlance, a 'mania.' In this ... illustrated book, Rachel McBride Lindsey places vernacular photography at the center of the study of nineteenth-century American religious culture and lived religion. As an empirical tool, photography captured many of the signal scenes of American life, from the Gold Rush to the bloody battlefields of the Civil War. But photographs did not simply display neutral records of people, places, and things--commonplace photographs became inscribed with spiritual meaning, disclosing, not merely signifying, a power that lay beyond---

Book Synopsis

When the revolutionary technology of photography erupted in American culture in 1839, it swiftly became, in the day's parlance, a "mania." This richly illustrated book positions vernacular photography at the center of the study of nineteenth-century American religious life. As an empirical tool, photography captured many of the signal scenes of American life, from the gold rush to the bloody battlefields of the Civil War. But photographs did not simply display neutral records of people, places, and things; rather, commonplace photographs became inscribed with spiritual meaning, disclosing, not merely signifying, a power that lay beyond.

Rachel McBride Lindsey demonstrates that what people beheld when they looked at a photograph had as much to do with what lay outside the frame -- theological expectations, for example -- as with what the camera had recorded. Whether studio portraits tucked into Bibles, postmortem portraits with locks of hair attached, "spirit" photography, stereographs of the Holy Land, or magic lanterns used in biblical instruction, photographs were curated, beheld, displayed, and valued as physical artifacts that functioned both as relics and as icons of religious practice. Lindsey's interpretation of "vernacular" as an analytic introduces a way to consider anew the cultural, social, and material reach of religion.

A multimedia collaboration with MAVCOR--Center for the Study of Material & Visual Cultures of Religion--at Yale University.

Review Quotes

"A thoroughly researched, trenchant study of Christian America's use of photographs, as visual and material objects, to construct narratives of personal and religious significance." -- Publishers Weekly

"Lindsey's greatest strength is in her ability to recreate scenes from history. She has scrupulously consulted memoirs, archives, and literature to reconstruct the lived experiences of those depicted in her photographs. She is an engaging storyteller."--Journal of Folklore Research

"The overall argument and her theoretical rigor allow Lindsey's analysis of neglected photographic media and their conditioned uses to shine once again and illuminate new paths in the study of religion, media, and history." -- Reading Religion

"What is eminently clear from Lindsey's analyses is that photography and photographs allowed Americans to do creative theological, religious, and cultural work that frequently went well beyond the photographs themselves."--Anglican and Episcopal History