SÉANCE by Shannon Taggart

Release: November 22, 2022

Press Contact: Alexandra Fanning | atelier@alexandrafanning.com

Atelier Éditions is pleased to announce a new edition of Séance, a monograph by photographer Shannon Taggart, releasing 22 November 2022.

American photographer Shannon Taggart’s fascination with Spiritualism, the belief in deceased individuals’ ability to communicate with the living, began during her adolescence when a medium revealed a family secret about the circumstances of Taggart’s grandfather’s death. Years later, Taggart, then a practicing photojournalist, found herself obsessively drawn to Lily Dale, New York—the world’s largest Spiritualist community. Her transformative experiences there catalyzed a 20-year odyssey documenting Spiritualist communities throughout the world in search of “ectoplasm”—an emanation exorcised from the body of the medium, believed to be both spiritual and material.

Named one of Time’s best photobooks of 2019, and now revisited by Atelier Éditions, Séance offers readers a remarkable series of supernatural photographs exploring Spiritualist practices and beliefs within communities found across the US, the UK, and Europe. The photos are accompanied by Taggart’s commentary on her experiences, a foreword by Dan Aykroyd, creator of Ghostbusters and fourth-generation Spiritualist, and illustrated essays by curator Andreas Fischer and artist Tony Oursler.

Atelier Éditions’ reissue also features new commentary by writer and filmmaker J. F. Martel, additional images, and an updated design.

About Shannon Taggart

Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, Shannon Taggart (born 1975) has contributed to Time, Newsweek, New York Times Magazine, Discover, New York, Wall Street Journal and Reader’s Digest. Her first monograph, Séance (Fulgur Press), was published in 2019. She is currently working on an illustrated book about the Society for Research on Rapport and Telekinesis (SORRAT), one of the most exotic cases within the history of psychical research.

PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 

PHOTOGRAPHS by Shannon Taggart

FOREWORD by Dan Aykroyd

INTRODUCTION by Shannon Taggart

TEXTS by Andreas Fischer, J.F. Martel, and Tony Oursler

PUBLISHED by Atelier Éditions

REVISED EDITION

Edition of 3000

ISBN # 9781954957015

Hardcover

304 pages including

182 color and 52 b&w photographs

9.5 x 11.75 inches

Printed sustainably in Belgium

Retail: $65 (US)

About Atelier Éditions

Atelier Éditions is an independent publishing house and creative consultancy established in Los Angeles in 2015. Authoring archival monographs, contemporary art books, and exploratory printed matter, the atelier regularly curates exhibitions, envisages cultural programming, initiates seminars, workshops, and enacts memorable collaborations.