Magic, Ritual & Witchcraft

By Elisabeth Krohn

Ellen’s favourite object of the shoot was The Witch’s Ladder. Coat and skirt Renli Su.

From the beautiful and mysterious, to the bizarre and macabre and the profoundly touching, the Ashmolean Autumn exhibition, Spellbound, looks at how our ancestors used magic to cope with the world they lived in. From 12th-century European artefacts to newly commissioned contemporary artworks, the show looks at human hopes, fears and passions, urging visitors to questions their own beliefs and rituals.

Dress In-Grid, blouse The Contemporary Wardrobe Collection.

“Choosing a lead image for an exhibition is rarely straight forward. It needs to be eye-catching, capture the essence of the show, appeal to as wide an audience as possible and most importantly drive ticket sales. When the exhibition explores the history of magic over eight hundred years through hundreds of diverse objects, selecting the lead image proved even more of a challenge. It became evident that none of the objects in the show would work well; the bulls’ hearts pierced with nails (found in chimneys as part of anti-Witch rituals) were too macabre, the Edwardian curse poppet was too shocking, the manuscripts perhaps a little dry. Clearly a different creative approach to communicate the themes and stories of Spellbound was required”, Theresa Nicolson, Marketing Manager at the Ashmolean, explains.

Fortuitously a conversation with Treadwell’s Bookshop founder, Christina Oakley Harrington, led the Ashmolean to photographer Ellen Rogers. A treasured contributor to Sabat, Ellen is known for an atmospheric, analogue style that has bewitched the fashion world. “Despite Ellen’s work being predominantly in fashion we felt that her ethereal style and use of hand tinted images would work well to help us create a compelling image for our exhibition’ said Theresa. Passionate about the stories told in Spellbound, she would come to add her signature ethereal flair to the Ashmolean campaign, casting spells with her images. “The theme and content is strange for me,” Ellen explains, “my mother was connected to them, perhaps also unintentionally, it was and is a theme in my life. Spells, rituals and magic, as ideas, are intricately woven into my being. I say strange because I never chose this path, it most certainly chose me.”

Coat Renli Su, dress The Contemporary Wardrobe Collection.

“Spells, rituals and magic, as ideas, are intricately woven into my being. I say strange because I never chose this path, it most certainly chose me.”

From a human heart encased in lead and exquisitely engraved rings to bind a lover, to spell books and magic mirrors, many of the objects in the exhibition have been made or transformed by people. “Whether that be making a Witch’s ladder from feathers and string or making a poppet doll from someone’s clothing, this theme of making objects or transforming them into something unusual and magical has carried through into the design work,” says Greg Jones, the Senior Graphic Designer. “We chose four objects for the photoshoot: a 19th century bull’s heart pierced with nails, a Witches ladder, a curse poppet and a 17th century crystal ball. All but the latter were made by a prop maker as the original objects could not be handled or taken off site”, Theresa explains. A last minute addition to the shoot was a fresh ox heart from a local butchers which the prop maker studded with antique nails to simulate how the artefact would have originally looked.

“The exhibition deals with dark and sometimes disturbing subject matter, and we wanted to ensure the campaign showed this in an intriguing and surprising way that was not overly provocative, frightening or shocking.”

Navigating the sometimes macabre or shocking objects of the exhibition, Ellen’s imagery brought a soft focus and personal point of view to the marketing of the show, appealing to both the Ashmolean core audience and younger audiences with particular interest in the subject areas. “The exhibition deals with dark and sometimes disturbing subject matter, and we wanted to ensure the campaign showed this in an intriguing and surprising way that was not overly provocative, frightening or shocking,” Theresa explains. “It deals with human stories and interactions with objects and we felt that introducing a model and location into the shoot would breathe life into the collection and portray a strong sense of emotion and atmosphere in the final image.” As with many objects in the exhibition, both the heart and the Witches’ ladder were not used by Witches, but by ordinary people defending themselves against the harm intended by Witches so it was important that the model’s role in the photo is ambiguous.

“Now, some people feel something when they are near this crystal ball, it has significance for many people, a gravitas, dare I say its charged.” Coat Renli Su.

“I find her to be pure love, the magic I believe in, no romance — just spectrums of light and dark.”

A long-time muse of Ellen’s, Ephyra was cast to model the campaign: “I find her to be pure love, the magic I believe in, no romance — just spectrums of light and dark,” Ellen tells Sabat. To emphasise the narrative of the exhibition and create an emotional connection, it was important to put the objects into the hands of a person. “I feel the final images ask the question ‘who is spellbound’? Is the model spellbound by the object or is she making someone else spellbound?” Greg explains. The objects are the primary focus of the photography and Ellen’s use of analogue techniques further underlines the exhibition’s theme of making: “We’re so used to seeing images digitally as soon as they are shot, so it was very different to work in film and ultimately very magical to see what Ellen developed in her darkroom and studio,” Greg continues. Objects charged with craft and creativity carry with them a magical kind of gravitas: “Personally, I am drawn to talismans, hand crafted and loved, trinkets to hide and carry, transitional spells to weave, something that feels charged but is in no way an object of extravagance or ostentations,” Ellen tells us. “I think that I tend to shoot objects that seem uniquely sacred or haptic, that carry an emotive resonance that represents something lost and perhaps even, something female.”

Dress In-Grid, blouse The Contemporary Wardrobe Collection.

“Is the model spellbound by the object or is she making someone else spellbound?”

Dress In-Grid, blouse The Contemporary Wardrobe Collection.

SPELLBOUND — Magic, Ritual & Witchcraft opens 31st August 2018 at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The campaign was shot at the panelled Old Common Room in St John’s College and Green Templeton College’s evocatively named Tower of the Winds in the Radcliffe Observatory. A further shoot took place in the Ashmolean’s lecture theatre where Ellen photographed the model against a series of backdrops chosen from their collection of landscape prints.

Photography by Ellen Rogers, styling by Emilia Pelech, make up by Rosita Di, Model Ephyra, Prop Maker Isobel Nicolson. With thanks to Kaveh Abbasian, Greg Jones, Theresa Nicolson and Treadwell’s Books.