The spookiest season is now upon us, and there’s just something about a bone-chilling tale that piques our interest around this time of year. Yeah, a slasher satire, vampire novel or ghost story by the campfire could definitely hit the spot. But for the photo freaks out there, something a little darker is needed to get under the skin. After all, photography does live in the realm of the dead. In honour of Halloween, we’ve handpicked the photobooks you have to read by jack-o’-lantern.
1. Masatoshi Naito, Baba Bakuhatsu!
Before it got crazily commercial, Halloween was a deeply spiritual day. It was believed that it was a night when the veil between worlds grew thin, allowing spirits to pass through and walk unseen, but not unheard. Masatoshi Naito unveiled this twilight zone most brilliantly in his phantasmagorical masterpiece from 1979. Armed with an almighty strobe – a magical tool employed to perceive the invisible – the scientist-cum-photographer documented a group of shamanic grannies who dwelled in the divine mountains of Tohoku. Thunderstruck, they invoke the dead with vigour and vivacity. Masatoshi’s vision will open your mind’s eye to the depths of your own being.
‘Baba Bakuhatsu!’ is published by Asahi Sonorama, £425. Prints are available at Michael Hoppen Gallery.
2. Ossian Brown, Haunted Air
Brushing the cobwebs off this perennial classic each year is akin to summoning the dead. Ossian Brown’s astonishing collection of antique, anonymous All Hallows’ Eve pics from yesteryear has the blessing of the master of creepy himself, David Lynch, who writes of the ghouls and bogeymen: “Here they are, looking out and holding themselves still, holding still at that point where two worlds join, the familiar and the other.”
‘Haunted Air’ is published by Jonathan Cape, £25.
3. Ken Werner, Halloween
Get your grubby little paws on this wild and pulsating period piece in three acts by American fringe photographer Ken Werner. It sequences 70s photographs taken on San Francisco’s Polk Street, at the Beaux Arts Ball and in the legendary gay neighbourhood, the Castro. These deranged characters are bound to get the Halloween hounds going.
‘Halloween’ is published by Octavia Press, £175.
4. Estelle Hanania, IT’S ALIVE!
This is definitely one of those books that goes bump in the night. Estelle Hanania’s fascination with the uncanny comes alive in this collaboration with French-Austrian choreographer Gisèle Vienne, whose spooky puppets star in a range of unsettling stage sets. Dark, distinctive and genuinely hypnotic, IT’S ALIVE! prevails as a first-rate example of two kindred spirits – or co-conspirators – coming together in the name of artistic affinity.
‘IT’S ALIVE!’ is published by Shelter Press, £40.
5. Camille Vivier, Monument
There’s an undeniable mysticism in Camille Vivier’s collection of candles, whose stories are rooted in Afro-Brazilian cults and voodoo rituals. These flickering waxworks raise questions about time, magic and human history. The perfect book to help you ward off evil spirits.
‘Monument’ is published by Monogram, £25.
6. Maisie Cousins, Rubbish, Dipping Sauce, grass, peonie, bum
Hooray! Copies of Maisie Cousins’ delectable, sugar-coated debut from 2019 are back in stock at Trolley. To trick or to treat? That is the question in this title in which visceral close-ups of delicacies such as thousand-year-old eggs, neon noodles and rotten Mexican sweeties rub up against each other. Choose wisely!
‘Rubbish, Dipping Sauce, grass, peonie, bum’ is published by Trolley Books, £100.
7. Joe Lai, Pinku
In this startling new book picturing models in various states of exorcism, Joe Lai draws on the erotic aesthetics of pinku, the Japanese film genre that was popularised in the mid-60s. While you won’t find any gory spills, what you will find is a tantalising and finely poised balance of beauty and horror.
‘Pinku’ is published by Art Paper Editions, £40.
8. Tokyo Rumando, Orphee
Enter the dreams (and nightmares) of Tokyo Rumando in this dark and radical book. It sees the Japanese artist act out alternative personas in a looking glass, from zombies and geishas to vamps and Marilyn Monroe. Orphee is Tokyo’s most accomplished book, revealing how fantasy intervenes in every attempt to see and be seen. Mirror mirror, on the wall…
‘Orphee’ is published by Zen Foto Gallery, £80.
9. John Divola, Vandalism
Nothing screams Halloween more than a haunted house. The setting of John Divola’s Vandalism is an abandoned building by the ocean in California. The subject is its battered walls, defaced by graffiti and splats of paint. It might not be a crime scene, but you’re certainly the witness.
‘Vandalism’ is published by Mack, £30.
10. Masahisa Fukase, Ravens
Here’s another backlist treasure from Mack, reminding us that the greatest photobook of all time is also the darkest. This supreme work by Masahisa Fukase captures conspiracies of ravens – intermediaries between the material and spirit worlds – silhouetted against icy skies or perched, like prophets, in gloomy trees, their evil eyes shining. A truly hair-raising requiem. One that augurs the end of the world.
‘Ravens’ is published by Mack, £75.
Credits
All images courtesy of the respective authors