For the first time in France, Echo Fine Arts (Cannes) presents Séance, an exhibition of photographs by American artist Shannon Taggart, on view until July 4, 2026. For more than twenty years, Taggart has explored a territory where the invisible seeks to take form: that of contemporary Spiritualism.
Born in nineteenth-century America, at the very moment photography was invented, Spiritualism is based on the belief in communication with spirits through the intermediary of a medium. This historical coincidence is far from insignificant. While faith promised access to the afterlife, photography, a fascinating new technology, claimed to be able to record reality with unprecedented precision. Very quickly, it became for some an instrument of proof; for others, the theater of carefully orchestrated illusions. Between revelation and deception, belief and skepticism, a tension took hold, and continues to nourish Shannon Taggart’s work.
The result of two decades of immersion among Spiritualist communities in the United States, England, and Europe, Séance brings together images of rare intensity. Séance circles, trance states, technological devices designed to capture the beyond: the artist documents these practices with the rigor of an investigator and the sensitivity of a portraitist.
Among the most striking photographs are those devoted to the quest for ectoplasm, an enigmatic substance, both spiritual and material. Made in darkened spaces, her images are characterized by vibrating blurs, luminous halos, fleeting apparitions, and incandescent colors that seem to emerge from the darkness.
But at the heart of the project lies, above all, the human experience. Many of the people photographed turned to Spiritualism after a bereavement. Belief appears here less as a doctrine than as an intimate necessity. Adopting the stance of a participant observer, Shannon Taggart captures not the spectacular, but the fragility, hope, and humanity of those seeking to reconnect with their departed.
Through Séance, the artist invites us to inhabit this uncertain space where the visible and the invisible brush against one another and where photography, once again, attempts to give form to what eludes us.
Shannon Taggart is an artist and author based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her photographs have been exhibited and published internationally, notably in TIME, New York Times Magazine, Discover, and Newsweek. Her work has received recognition from Nikon, Magnum Photos, the Inge Morath Foundation, American Photography, and the Alexia Foundation for World Peace. Her monograph Séance (Fulgur Press, 2019) was selected as one of the best photography books of 2019 by TIME magazine.
A Meeting with the Artist
On Saturday, June 20, 2026 at 4 p.m., Shannon Taggart will be present at the gallery for a discussion about her photographic work. Admission is free. As places are limited, registration is required.
Reservation: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rencontre-avec-lartiste-shannon-taggart-tickets-1984465723399
Shannon Taggart : Séance
until July 4, 2026
Echo Fine Arts
19 Boulevard Tuby
06400 Cannes
www.echofinearts.com
