Spiritualism as a religion is interesting, as many people find comfort and solace in their beliefs and religious practices, or within their religion of choice. As is the case of Shannon Taggert, who first started photographically documenting the practices of spiritualism and eventually found herself a believer. While I find the concept of the religion fascinating, as I do with most religions and their ability to gain and maintain followers, the photographs are simply not enough to convince me of anything. As we have already seen in regard to early photography, pictures are easily manipulated and often staged in order to tell a story. A story designed by the photographer and not necessarily belonging to the subjects. Bent spoons on a table that have supposedly been bent by the power of the mind, a blurry picture of an enlarged hand and pictures of smudges of people mixed in with people in perfect focus are just not enough to convince me that photography has been successful in capturing the nature of this religion.