Jack Smith brooding over Ibsen's GHOSTS

 

 

Given his obsession with his mother, it should come as no great surprise that Jack Smith had corollary obsessions with the plays, Hamlet and Ghosts.  He even began making films of them, which I've never seen (but few people have.)  Jerry Tartaglia has written about them; which is appropriate, as he's the guy restoring their remains.  I have some hope of someday seeing them.  These photographs are tangentially related and the photomontage is directly related to Smith's adaptation of Ibsen's great psychodrama.  Then there's also a photo from the production itself with Jack playing Oswald.  He named his production the Secret of Rented Island.

Jack had himself photographed, after conscientiously arranging himself for the camera in a very old cemetery in Genoa.  He made great use of the pictures in his subsequent work.