Courtesy Ossian Brown
Halloween has become a cultural and commercial phenomenon over the years, with ever more elaborate costumes and decorations on display. In his book, "Haunted Air," artist and musician Ossian Brown explores the origins of Halloween through a collection anonymous, vintage photographs from the 19th and early 20th century. While the costumes are simpler, and most likely homemade, these spooky embodiments of the Halloween spirit easily rival anything seen today.
"I like to experience each photograph as a magical event, frozen in front of me. I'm drawn to pictures with a mood that 'oozes' into the normality of the moment, and changes it," Brown wrote in "Haunted Air." "It's important to me that there's nothing to disturb this, no detail in the composition or in the models posture that could interfere with that magic."
"Haunted Air" is published by Jonathan Cape, an Imprint of Random House, and distributed in the U.S. by IPG/Trafalgar Square Publishing.
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
"All the clocks had stopped. A void out of time. And here they are - looking out and holding themselves still - holding still at that point where two worlds join - the familiar - and the other." -- David Lynch, from the introduction to "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
"These are pictures of the dead: family portraits, mementoes of the treasured, the held-dear-in-heart, now unrecognisable, other. Torn from album pages, sold piecemeal for pennies and scattered, abandoned to melancholy chance and the hands of strangers." -- Geoff Cox, from the afterword to "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
Courtesy Ossian Brown
Vintage Halloween, from Ossian Brown's "Haunted Air"
