Haunt

Haunt is the second monograph by Dallas based photographer Misty Keasler and is a portrait of our culture and the study of fear as entertainment in commerical haunted houses. This work took Keasler to 13 haunts throughout the United States over the course of 2 years, where she was given unprecedented access to each location, shooting lengthy time exposures of uninhabited interiors and their facades on film, while additionally shooting formal portraits of their actors in costume. The resulting efforts yielded 146 vividly colorful, yet chilling photographs, that provide the viewer the space to experience the immense detail the proprietors of these haunts pour into them.

In her essay, curator Andrea Karnes contextualizes this body of work within the conversation of contemporary photography as well as exploring its ties to the history of painting. An essay by sociologist and author Margee Kerr, provides an insider’s glimpse of everything that makes up a great haunt, from the props to the psychological foundation of a good scare.