Sojourner Truth on Fundraising (NPG II)
A little while back, when we were in Delaware visiting our friends Tom & James, we made an outing to the Delaware Art Museum. One thing that caught my attention there — I was reminded of this because I saw another example of it at the National Portrait Gallery this past weekend — was a small carte de visite for Sojourner Truth. (Here is yet another example, thanks to the Library of Congress.)
What interested me was that she used these cards as fundraising tools. When she made public appearances, she sold these cards — or, perhaps, gave them away in exchange for a donation. Printed on the cards was a photograph of Truth, below which were these words (click on the image in the link above):
I sell the shadow to support the substance.
I was fascinated by what seems to be the vestige of the idea that a photograph takes away some of the essence of a person or might endanger the person's soul, but in this case only "the shadow" seemed endangered, and that in support of a good cause.
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on Wednesday, 26 July 2006 at 16.04
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I think maybe you're reading into what she said. It appears to me she's simply using the word "shadow" instead of "image" because it's in keeping with the rhetorical analogy of shadow vs. substance.
The notion of photographic soul snatching you refer to is real enough. It was long ago reported among primitive peoples in Africa and Latin America. In any case, it is interesting.