Little Bells is a staged series of images inspired by Victorian-era Spiritualism - the idea that a person's soul not only lives on after death, but can also communicate and materialize. In the United States and Enlgand, Spiritualism gained popularity around 1848 after two teenage sisters in New York became well known mediums.
Because of my own supernatural experiences with some maternal ancestors, I chose to style these images based on old photos and stories of them. I also employed my daughters as models. This feminine line is purposeful. Girls and women had a strong role in the history of Spiritualism.
Alex Owen, a research professor from Northwestern University, writes in her book The Darkened Room, "It is no accident that Spiritualism, a movement which privileged women and took them seriously, attracted so many female believers during a period of gender disjunction and disparity between aspiration and reality. Spiritualist culture held possibilities for attention, opportunity, and status denied elsewhere. In certain circumstances, it could also provide a means of circumventing rigid nineteenth-century class and gender norms. More importantly, it did so without mounting a direct attack on the status quo. Spiritualism had the potential, not always consciously realised, for subversion."
This is an ongoing project.
Copyright 2026 Elizabeth Lynch Photography
