Esoteric Potentiality in Creating and Viewing Angel-themed Photographs
Approaching Religion December 2, 2025 Oscar Ortiz-Nieminen, Terhi Utriainen, Alexandra Bergholm
An angel-themed art photograph by Finnish artist Hanne Kiiveri, inspired by a waking dream of her late sister, sparked diverse audience interpretations. Analyzing viewer responses through Egil Asprem's kataphatic (concrete) and apophatic (abstract) modes of thinking reveals that both the artist and audiences draw on popularized tropes from Western esotericism, particularly the kataphatic tradition. This "occultural resourcing" shapes how viewers engage with the juxtaposition of fantasy and reality, the mundane and spiritual. The analysis raises broader questions about photography's capacity to picture the otherworldly and what can be seen through a photograph.