Victorian Halloween party

The Victorian era was a time of deep change: the Industrial Revolution and the growth of science and culture. It was also a time when death, the afterlife and the occult were frequent themes in photography and painting.

Even photography had its own eerie, mysterious aesthetic then:

• Oscar Gustave Rejlander, one of the pioneers of photomontage. His The Two Ways of Life was assembled from 32 negatives with some twenty models; the picture caused a scandal until Queen Victoria bought a copy.
• Hannah Maynard, a Canadian photographer known for her experiments with multiple exposure, mirrors and surreal compositions: in her self-portraits she sits at a table next to copies of herself.
• Frederick Hudson, one of the first “spirit” photographers: thanks to double exposure, ghostly figures appeared next to the living in his pictures.

At the party we will talk, listen to music, drink wine and shoot on film.

The dress code is required: long silhouettes, lace, high collars, jackets, corsets, waistcoats, small hats, gloves, jewellery with silver or stones. Dark or deep, rich colours.