Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America (2020)

Andrews McMeel Publishing

Available for purchase HERE.

Based on her critically acclaimed exhibition, Major Arcana collects the work of photographer Frances F. Denny, who traveled around the U.S. photographing and interviewing a diverse group of people who identify as witches. This book is an exploration of contemporary witchery told through striking photographs and short, inspiring texts written by the subjects themselves. The volume includes a foreword by the “Terry Gross of witches,” Pam Grossman, and as well as a transcribed conversation between the author and curator Horace D. Ballard. From occultists and Neo-pagans, to herbalists and Wiccan High Priestesses, Denny’s portraits capture the face of modern American witchcraft and challenge our assumptions about who and what a witch really is.

Photography by Frances F. Denny

Foreword by Pam Grossman, Q & A with Horace D. Ballard

Clothbound with iridescent foil stamped cover / 7 x 10 inches

IBSN: 9781524858339

Publish date: 11/10/2020

Pages: 160

Price: $24.99

Praise for Major Arcana:

"Like other portraitists, such as the contemporary Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra, or the twentieth-century German master August Sander, Denny captures her subjects suspended delicately between performativity and naturalism. These self-identified witches are positioning themselves before us, fully conscious of our eye, and Denny is allowing them a lovely three-dimensionality." – The New Yorker

“…‘MAJOR ARCANA: Witches in America’ is more than a snapshot of fringe counterculture characters. Denny privileges the women themselves over their practices—their occult considerations are only part of their identities. Whatever the roots and shapes of their particular beliefs, Denny’s subjects are part of a growing feminist resistance to the patriarchal politics that lurk just outside of her frames. Not only does Denny subvert tired witch tropes, she undercuts more widespread misogynistic views, as well…As Denny further dissects the subject, she enlarges our ideas of what it means to be a woman living in America today.” – Artsy

“’Denny’s project is timely in the age of #MeToo and the recent Kavanaugh hearings. It holds enormous inspiration for women who are waking up from their own silencing and seeing… a path into their own vitality and into finding their voice.’” – The Daily Mail

Let Virtue Be Your Guide (2015)

Radius Books

Available for purchase HERE.

Let Virtue Be Your Guide examines the author’s family, and their deeply rooted history as early settlers of New England (one ancestor, John Howland, was a deckhand aboard The Mayflower). Unearthing the idea of feminine “virtue” from the confines of its historical meaning, Denny’s photographs of the women in her family have a watchful quality, as if she is defining for herself what it means to be a woman. Her subjects, and the domestic spaces they inhabit, together evoke a distinct and well-worn privilege. But Denny finds the places where seams pull apart, exposing the shifts occurring across generations of women. The resulting collection of images becomes a search for meaning in heritage, a challenge to the notion of legacy, and the artist’s reckoning with a traditional version of American femininity.

Photography by Frances F. Denny

Afterword by Lisa Locascio

Clothbound with acetate jacket and fold-out photographic insert / 9.75 x 10.5 inches

Published: 2015

ISBN: 9781942185000

113 pages

Price: $45.00

Limited edition available for purchase HERE.

Praise for Let Virtue Be Your Guide:

“Denny offers a poignant exploration of the constructs of femininity that have been passed down over many generations to the women in her family, and where she fits among them.” – The New York Times/ Women in the World

“In her series “Let Virtue Be Your Guide,” the photographer Frances F. Denny explores the models of moral conduct she grew up with, in a family with a deep-rooted New England history. Guided by her female family members, Denny’s visual journey explores how women are perceived. Her images incorporate both her past and the present–and mix clashing patterns of muted hues with powerful portraits. Delicate and bright, the lighting has a magical quality that illuminates the beauty in the ordinary.” – T Magazine