Join Phineas Finke on his journey into madness with this Victorian Gothic tale.  The Lost Journals is a unique illustrated story, filled with 92 soul-chilling images – the actual wet plate photographs made in 1906 by Phineas Finke with his New Emulsion.

What unspeakable horrors might be surrounding us at all times, unseen and invisible?  Do you have the courage to find out?

"A whole new world is unfolding before me, populated by beings that live amongst us unseen. Am I dreaming, or is this real? Sometimes, when I gaze upon these photographs, I wonder if I am losing my mind. It seems that everywhere I take my camera, a new form of organism approaches me, or perhaps follows me..."

"Feeling the need to understand the essence of these creatures, I have a strong desire somehow to categorize them, as they simply do not fit into our understanding of the world. I propose to name them Ethereals, for they appear such in their very nature, incapable of physical interaction with our material world. At least, I hope they are. They are so numerous and alarming in appearance that I believe they would, if capable of such interaction, quite overwhelm our human world."

"The town seems overrun with these monsters. Have they always been amongst us, and are only now becoming visible through my emulsion, or are they multiplying day by day, as if reproducing at a fantastic rate? I cannot but notice that there are what appear to be eggs of some kind everywhere. Perhaps the ethereals are nesting in houses, buildings, and trees, creating nurseries for their young...."

"My dreams are extraordinarily disturbing of late, and I have been losing a great deal of sleep. The nightmares started during the Winter, and are worse when I am at home, which has become dark and claustrophobic. My fear and anxiety are reaching almost intolerable heights. There seems to be a continual twilight surrounding my home, and a faint odor of decay."

From the Foreward

In the spirit of full disclosure, I want to state that the images presented in this book were created with the assistance of an Artificial Intelligence. For some, this is a controversial subject, but for me, as a professional photographer and artist who weathered the digital revolution in imagemaking back in the 1990’s, AI is just another tool in my toolbox.

Each and every image in this book is a collage of multiple AI generated elements, composited together with heavy manual alteration and retouching. I have worked in the medium of collage for the past 24 years, exhibiting in almost one hundred galleries and museums worldwide. Here I am using AI elements based on 19th century wet plate photographs, rather than 19th century engravings, as in my other works.

I discovered that working with an AI is a kind of coaxing, a dance you enter into with it. You push in one direction, the AI pushes in another, and in the end it is a compromise, a collaboration between you and the machine. It was like journeying into a bizarre and dreamlike world, and somehow managing to bring back snapshots of my travels.

The concept for “The Lost Journals of Phineas Finke” was an idea that I had back in the 1980’s. At first, it was going to be a screenplay, and then a graphic novel, but it never came to fruition until I discovered AI in December of 2022. The perfect tool to realize this project was finally invented! I generated over two thousand images, and the creation of the final collages was quite difficult with so many fascinating - and disturbing! - images to choose from.

The creation of this book was an amazing journey of exploration and discovery, and I hope that reading it will give you a sense of the mystery and magic that I experienced in its creation.