{"id":6811,"date":"2014-11-02T09:21:07","date_gmt":"2014-11-02T16:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6811"},"modified":"2014-10-28T09:36:09","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T15:36:09","slug":"the-occluded-life-of-an-occult-photographer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6811","title":{"rendered":"The Occluded Life of an “Occult” Photographer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

William Mortensen touching up a photo portrait of the actress Jean Harlow. Other photos NSFW.<\/p><\/div>\n

If a phrase like “famous early twentieth century California photographer” makes you think of Edward Weston<\/a> or Ansel Adams<\/a>, then you probably have not heard of William Mortensen, known “as ‘the Antichrist’ by Ansel Adams, a tag that stuck after Anton LaVey dedicated\u00a0The Satanic Bible\u00a0to him. Primarily known as a Hollywood portrait artist, he developed a myriad of pre-Photoshop special effects to craft grotesque, erotic, and mystical images.”<\/p>\n

Publicizing a new book of his photos, Vice <\/em>offers “The Grotesque Eroticism of William Mortensen’s Lost Photography<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

His life remained a mystery. I had absorbed A. D. Coleman\u2019s essay about Mortensen\u2019s relegation to the backwater of photo history by the Newhalls, Adams and the rest, and, thus understood why there was little mention of him in photo history books. I\u2019d even tracked down the booklet printed by Deborah Irmas and The Los Angeles Center for Creative Photography, who had put together the show that I\u2019d seen. However, when I found any biographical information, the sources repeated the same story line, which came from the brief autobiographical section in Mortensen\u2019s book The Command To Look<\/em>. Beyond those slim facts there seemed to be nothing more. William Mortensen appeared to be more myth than man.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Would we say that Chicago photographer and occult historian Rik Garrett <\/a>is somewhat in his lineage?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If a phrase like “famous early twentieth century California photographer” makes you think of Edward Weston or Ansel Adams, then you probably have not heard of William Mortensen, known “as ‘the Antichrist’ by Ansel Adams, a tag that stuck after Anton LaVey dedicated\u00a0The Satanic Bible\u00a0to him. Primarily known as a Hollywood portrait artist, he developed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[45,75,39,78],"class_list":["post-6811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-art","tag-california","tag-occultism","tag-photography"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1LR","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1053,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1053","url_meta":{"origin":6811,"position":0},"title":"Passing of Feraferia’s Fred Adams","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I learned today of the passing on August 9 of Frederick McLaren Adams, co-founder of the Southern California Pagan group Feraferia in the 1960s.(Right: Fred and Svetlana Adams at a Feraferia ritual during the late 1960s.)Although later cross-fertilized by Gleb Botkin's Church of Aphrodite, Feraferia (\"wilderness festival\") was a unique\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8498,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8498","url_meta":{"origin":6811,"position":1},"title":"Books and Movies for a Pagan Mindset","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been thinking that I needed to add a new category of reviews \u2014 not just books etc. deliberately focused on Paganism (which to my mind automatically includes polytheism), but those that promote a Pagan mindset without coming out and saying it. Go ahead and say it: Pagan-ish. My\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"movies\"","block_context":{"text":"movies","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=movies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4887,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4887","url_meta":{"origin":6811,"position":2},"title":"A Goddess-Movement Video with Something Extra","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"First, although this is not directly about \"the Goddess movement,\" I want to point out the blogging that Aidan Kelly has been doing, particularly about the history of contemporary Paganism in America, at his Patheos blog, Including Paganism. Another resource is Dancing with Gaia, a video subtitled \"Earth Energy, Sacred\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gaiadancing.com\/images\/gaia_dancing_dvdcopySm.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13338,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13338","url_meta":{"origin":6811,"position":3},"title":"An Online Presentation on the Wilderness Vision of Feraferia","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 14, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The Pagan group Feraferia had a fairly large (by Pagan standards of the time) following, chiefly\u00a0 in Southern California, starting in the late 1960s. It was largely the creation of one man, the visonary artist Fred Adams, and was a unique creation, with some inspiration from the ancient Minoan civilization\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"Maiden Savioress Spirit Guiding the Age of Aquarius,Fred Adams, 1977.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/feraferia.org\/images\/stories\/maiden%20savioress%20by%20fred%20adams%20cpy4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7269,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7269","url_meta":{"origin":6811,"position":4},"title":"Some Polish Healers and Witches","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Part of a photo portrait exhibit on \"women of power\" in Poland by photographer Katarzyna Majak. (Via Slate)","rel":"","context":"In \"Poland\"","block_context":{"text":"Poland","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=poland"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.slate.com\/content\/dam\/slate\/blogs\/behold\/2015\/06\/Women%20of%20Power\/1.jpg.CROP.original-original.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1615,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1615","url_meta":{"origin":6811,"position":5},"title":"Passing of Feraferia’s Svetlana","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Svetlana Butryn, wife of Fred Adams, founder of the small but influential West Coast Pagan group Feraferia, passed away last Thursday, May 6, after a long period of ill health. She was 75. Fred himself died in 2008. Feraferia had a \"only in Southern California\" quality to it, arising partly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"California\"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=california"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fred and Svetlana of Feraferia in the 1960s.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chasclifton.com\/graphics\/fredsvet_sm.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6811"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6813,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6811\/revisions\/6813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}