Ghost Photography: Science for Cultivation, Buddhism for Reason

The practice of ghost photography emerged in early 20th-century China at the intersection of growing spiritualist movements and anti-superstition campaigns. Introduced by Western-educated Chinese intellectuals and popularized by spiritualist societies, this controversial yet influential practice bridged religious beliefs with scientific approaches, capturing the imagination of people across cultures. In China, it functioned as a means of materializing the invisible, mediating with spirits, facilitating self-cultivation, and preserving religious practices such as spirit writing and visual communication with the gods and spirits. This talk explores how visual media technologies both transformed and preserved religious engagement in early 20th-century China, demonstrating how practitioners adapted photography to fit Buddhist frameworks of perception and metaphysics. Rather than abandoning religious reasoning, Buddhist thinkers and spiritualists reinterpreted science itself as a tool for cultivation, challenging the boundaries between belief and technology.

Nataly Shahaf is a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study. She received her Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University in 2023. A historian of modern China, Nataly explores the intersections of Buddhism, science, and print culture, with a focus on spiritualism and heritage. Her forthcoming book, Multiple Exposures: Ghost Photography, Buddhism, and Visual Heritage in Early Twentieth-Century China, investigates how visual media have shaped and been shaped by Buddhist ideas, beliefs, and practices.