Un tipo de documento visual descuidado en España: la fotografía espiritista

Abstract

The so-called spiritualist photography was for a long time a sort of visual document practically forgotten by historians, critics and the general public. At the international level, since the end of the last century, different studies have claimed the interest of these images and the cultural context in which they appear. However, no equivalent studies have been carried out in Spain so far. In these circumstances, this article intends to make a first contribution to the history of this kind of photographic documents, by identifying and locating samples of this visual heritage, as well as by offering a first chronology of the main facts related to this heritage. Until now, only some images that were published in books or magazines have been found, but not originals or copies. From what has been seen so far, it seems that, in Spain, the phenomenon of the spiritualist photography had very limited scope and impact when compared to the international panorama.