Halloween: An Eerie Reflection of our Reality; a Collection

INFO-647: Visual Resource Management; Pratt Institute

Project Description – Through hands-on exploration, I curated a collection of materials to digitize surrounding the theme of Halloween and the eerie. This included 8 prints and a one of a kind drawing from a special edition of Stephen King’s The Shining, 11 covers of The New Yorker magazine Halloween editions, and 24 photographs of vintage Halloween costumes. I digitized, researched, and cataloged every image, as well as created a paper and presentation deliverable exploring the connection between human beings and the sublime, and how Halloween as a holiday can be a reflection of that.

Methods – After coming across a special edition of The Shining with unique illustrations, specifically a one-of-a-kind hand drawn image by Glenn Chadbourne, in a book store for $3 no less, I knew this was something that could benefit from digitization. In order to round out the collection, I utilized the New York Public Library Picture Collection, where I found inspiration in the Halloween subject, discovering creepy vintage halloween costumes and many halloween The New Yorker covers. Digitizing the images next required me to utilize digitizing tools on both Pratt’s Brooklyn and Manhattan campuses. After photoshopping the images for accurate representation, I then had to do research in order to properly catalog all of the images using Adobe Bridge for embedded metadata.

Phyllis Galembo Halloween Costume Photos