Aura photography is the latest trend for the selfie generation

A fresh wave of occultist photographers are occupying New York, with specially pioneered cameras to capture auras on film.

Hidden in Chinatown is a paranormal vendor who supplies instant prints of human energy fields in a cartoonishly mysterious business model. Across town in a swankier shopfront is Radiant Human, who set up shop at the Red Bull studios in Chelsea. Radiant Human is a travelling peddler of spiritual Polaroids (right), snapping a person’s “vibes” and then interpreting said vibes.

This has proved popular with the soul-searching community of Instagram users. Both clairvoyant vendors translate the multicoloured glow around the pictured customer to a concise synopsis of past, present and future, treating the supposed layers of their aura like a kind of spiritual onion for humans. They make great profilers and they’re right on point with the cosmic chic trend, which has chiefly manifested in galaxy- print leggings and endless images of cats in space .

Photography of the human electromagnetic field was pioneered in the 1930s by a Russian electrician who toyed around with metal electrodes and “at the price of a severe burn” captured a strange photo of an energy discharge around his hand. He plugged his efforts as aura photography and was regarded with reverence and/or scepticism for the rest of his days.

Today’s images use the same bockety technology and preach sentiments such as: “We foster the ephemeral and make the metaphysical tangible”, which would make a more appropriate company line for Buckfast. Owing to the inclusion of pretty colours, and by encouraging narcissistic personality disorder, expect aura photography to continue to grow as an artform.