The Historic Boo Orleans Collection

For most of the country, Halloween is the main event when it comes to costuming. In New Orleans, Carnival takes center stage. Even though Mardi Gras puts more emphasis on revelry than devilry, Halloween’s influence has always bled into the festivities. In lieu of the usual jester hats, Venetian masks, and feather headdresses, Carnivalgoers of yore have chosen to hit the streets dressed as vampires, executioners, and even pumpkins. In 1891, Comus chose “Demonology” as their parade theme, and in the 135 years since then, krewes have designed floats with similarly spooktacular themes based on werewolves, witches, and skeletons. Scary outfits for parades and balls were made to match, with many crafted by 50-year Carnival costume design veteran Larry Youngblood. It’s enough to make you scream, “Throw me something, monster!” 

It didn’t take long after the invention of photography for practitioners of the new medium to start freaking people out. The concurrent rise of Spiritualism in the mid-19th century guaranteed a ready audience for the photographic apparitions that began to appear. Behind the lens, photographers were using double exposure and practical effects such as “ectoplasm” made from cheesecloth to shock and amaze viewers. In the 20th century, photographers like Eugene Delcroix and Clarence John Laughlin used the trademarks of occult photography to heighten add ghostly effects to their work. Both used south Louisiana’s natural environment to create a sense of otherworldliness, with Laughlin especially fascinated by the architectural and spiritual ghosts of the plantation South. Laughlin’s fanciful titles—Ghosts Along the Mississippi, Haunter of Ruins—heightened the Southern Gothic mystique of his work, which helped to build a supernatural visual vocabulary of Louisiana still seen today, as in HBO’s True Detective.