The accompanying text persuasively argues that what we look for in a face has changed enormously over the years.
Ghost is divided into three loosely connected parts.
The fascinating first section centers on 19th-century clinical photographer Duchenne de Boulogne. Inspired by the craze for phrenology and physiognomy, he set out to create an atlas of emotions by photographing subjects while stimulating their facial muscles with electric shocks. Somewhat more predictably, Andy Warhol dominates part two as the apotheosis of the 20th century's investment in surface, while Cindy Sherman is the figurehead for the final section on masquerade. Sobieszek has set himself an unwieldy task in corralling 150 years of photography into three chapters, and his leaps through time and space lead to some odd bedfellows. Still, this chronology-busting makes for some visually spectacular collisions as past and present, mainstream and marginal, face off.