



1 / 10 Chevron Chevron “Measuring Visual Disturbances no. 3.”

The photographer Elizabeth Moran’s mother grew up in a farmhouse on an old plantation on Cherry Road in Memphis.* For as long as Moran can remember, her mother would tell her stories about how the house was haunted. Moran, along with her aunt and uncle, who are both paranormal investigators, went on to explore this family lore. Her resulting project, “Record of Cherry Road,” is the subject of a new photography exhibit at N.Y.U.’s Gulf and Western Gallery.

Most paranormal investigators, Moran told me, begin by researching the history of a suspected haunted place and the stories of the people who occupied the site. Moran and her uncle spent many days at the Shelby County Archive, in Memphis, digging through land deeds, census data, and other documents dating back as far as a century. Once, on the suspected haunted site, she set up numerous devices such as laser grids, machines that measure electromagnetic fields, and audio recorders, which are able to pick up disturbances to both visible and invisible light and energy.

Moran told me that the project was inspired, in part, by “thinking about what could be considered unphotographable.” Often, she simply sat and waited for hours on end. “I realized I needed to look at photographs through the eyes of a paranormal investigator,” she said, “not a photographer, like I had been trained.”

“Record of Cherry Road” will be on view at N.Y.U.’s Gulf and Western Gallery from December 4th through January 17th.​

All photographs courtesy Elizabeth Moran.

*Correction: A previous version of this post said that Elizabeth Moran herself grew up in the farmhouse.