i saw Helga Härenstam's work on Conscientious, and enjoyed checking out her project "House of the Extraordinary." i especially liked reading the images in this series as contemporary, color explorations of the way technology and light can manifest as creepy and miraculous.
this reminded me of a book a friend recently gave me: Brought to Light: Photography and the Invisible 1840 - 1900 (from the SFMoMA exhibition). the book explores the early use of photography to capture "the realm beyond our everyday vision," from space photography to microscopic particles, X-rays, and even spirit photography.
Helga Härenstam's image (top) instantly reminded me of this 1912 photograph of a medium (and her viewer) from Brought to Light.
whether photography is attempting to capture ectoplasm, the human spirit, or the connection that happens the moment the shutter clicks, i think the best of it is still searching for that realm beyond our everyday vision.
[null, {"document_url": "http://subjectify.blogspot.com/2009/02/", "unformatted_src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wd9GP45tjQE/SYiBnKqR_YI/AAAAAAAABTw/_OFOQwrpx8A/s320/electricity.jpg", "src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wd9GP45tjQE/SYiBnKqR_YI/AAAAAAAABTw/_OFOQwrpx8A/s320/electricity.jpg", "formatted_filename": "electricity"}, {"document_url": "http://subjectify.blogspot.com/2009/02/", "unformatted_src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wd9GP45tjQE/SYiBnQFnQ5I/AAAAAAAABT4/vhvaGZwettA/s320/spiritphotography.jpg", "src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wd9GP45tjQE/SYiBnQFnQ5I/AAAAAAAABT4/vhvaGZwettA/s320/spiritphotography.jpg", "formatted_filename": "spiritphotography"}, null, null, null, null, null]