Spirit photography
Spirit photography is a type of photography whose primary goal is to capture images of ghosts and other spiritual entities, especially in ghost hunting. It dates back to the late 19th century. The end of the American Civil War and the mid-19th Century Spiritualism movement contributed greatly to the popularity of spirit photography. The omnipresence of death in the Victorian period created a desire for evidence of the afterlife, and those who partook in spirit photography oftentimes hoped to receive images that depicted the likeness of a deceased relative or loved one. Photographers such as William Mumler and William Hope ran thriving businesses taking photos of people with their supposed dead relatives. Both were accused of fraud, but "true believers", such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, refused to accept the evidence as proof of a hoax. Though taken to court, Mumler was eventually acquitted of all charges. They were never able to prove his methods.
As cameras became available to the general public, ghost photographs became common due to natural camera artifacts such as flash reflecting off dust particles, a camera strap or hair close to the lens, lens flare, pareidolia, or in modern times, deceptions using smart phone applications that add ghost images to existing photographs.
History
The first practical photography, introduced in 1839, used the daguerreotype process. In this and other early processes, the image was developed directly from the exposure plate, so multiple exposure did not normally occur. Yet, since they required long exposures, it was possible for passing movement to leave a faint image, and they were able to capture reflections in the manner of Pepper's ghost. Sir David Brewster, in 1856, recognized that these effects could be used deliberately to create ghostly pictures. The London Stereoscopic Company used Brewster's idea to create a series of images called "The Ghost in the Stereoscope".The adoption of glass-plate negative processes around 1859 made it practical to reuse an exposure plate, with the possibility of prior images remaining visible; it was this effect that early spirit photographers relied on to create their images. As cameras fell in price and became more widespread, spirit photography boomed, although the methods could be crude. The phenomenon did not start to decline until the 1920s after skeptics such as Harry Houdini tried to counteract spiritualistic fraud.
Spirit photographers
An American jewelry engraver and amateur photographer named William Mumler published, in 1862, a photograph of what was purportedly the spirit of his cousin, who had died 12 years earlier. This first incident took place in the studios of Mrs. Helen F. Stuart in Boston. The media sensation that this caused led Mumler to leave engraving and to begin a successful business as a "Spirit Photographic Medium", established within Mrs. Stuart's studios and later moved to New York. He serviced those hoping to find a supernatural connection to lost relatives, many of them children or young men killed in the American Civil War.One of Mumler's most famous images is a photograph of Mary Todd Lincoln posed with the purported spirit of her assassinated husband. The apparent spirits that Mumler had captured were thought to be double exposures of previous clients from photographic plates that were improperly cleaned. In 1869, Mumler was accused of fraud. He was acquitted, however, despite the claim that one of his so-called spirits was shown to be still alive. P.T. Barnum, who testified against Mumler, was one of his outspoken critics, declaring he was taking advantage of people's grief. Mumler later moved on to doing regular photography.
Spirit photography started appearing in England in 1872 from photographer Fredrick Hudson's studios. He allegedly "gimmicked" his camera to hold a pre-exposed image that would move into place when he took his photo.
In 1875, Édouard Buguet, a French spirit photographer, who also had a studio in London, was arrested in Paris and prosecuted for fraud after making a full confession. He simulated spirits by wrapping dolls in gauze and attaching photos of faces onto them. His confession was widely publicized in the French and English press.
In 1891 one of the most famous spirit photographs was taken by Sybell Corbet. She took a photo of the library at Combermere Abbey in Cheshire, England in which appeared the "...faint outline of a man's head, collar and right arm". The figure was believed to be the ghost of Lord Combermere who had recently died and was being buried at the time the photo was taken. Because the exposure was one hour, it was believed by skeptics that someone, possibly a servant, had walked into the room and paused, causing the ghostly outline.
One of the most famous photographers at the turn of the century was William Hope. In February 1922, Harry Price from the Society for Psychical Research, a magician named Seymour, Eric J. Dingwall and William S. Marriott showed Hope to be a fraud. They devised a plan where they presented Hope with glass negatives that had secretly been marked with X-rays. The returned plate containing the spirit had no markings. Price wrote his findings in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. Despite this proof, prominent spiritualists, such as Arthur Conan Doyle, claimed the report was a part of a conspiracy against Hope. Hope had continued success despite the evidence against him. Paranormal investigator Massimo Polidoro said that the case of William Hope and his followers demonstrate how difficult it can be to convince true believers, even when there is strong evidence of fraud.
Other spirit photographers exposed as frauds include David Duguid and Edward Wyllie. Ronald Pearsall exposed the tricks of spirit photography in his book The Table-Rappers.
Early books
There were several books published defending the possibility of spirit photography. Among the notable books were The Case for Spirit Photography by Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1922 where Doyle attempted to defend William Hope and his Crewe Circle, a well known spiritualist group of the time. Other spiritualists who authored books supporting spirit photography were Georgiana Houghton who wrote Chronicles of the Photographs of Spiritual Beings and Phenomena Invisible to the Material Eye and James Coates who wrote Photographing the Invisible.Ghost photography
Paranormal investigator Joe Nickell makes a distinction between spirit photography and ghost photography in his book The Science of Ghosts: Searching for Spirits of the Dead, stating that spirit photography began in studios and eventually included ghosts photographed in séance rooms, whereas ghost photographs were taken in places that were considered haunted. Nickell states "...whereas spirit photos were invariably charlatans' productions, ghost photos could either be faked or appear inadvertently – as by reflection, accidental double exposure, or the like."Once portable cameras became available to amateurs toward the end of the 1880s ghost photos became more frequent. In more modern times, cameras with built in flashes produced what some believed to be ectoplasm, or "orbs". Most ghost photos fall into one of two categories. They are either hazy, indistinct shapes that look human or orbs that are usually white and round. Both can easily be purposefully or accidentally created.
Modern claims
Television shows such as Ghost Hunters have claimed common photographic anomalies as proof of supernatural activity. In his book Investigating Ghosts: The Scientific Search for Spirits Ben Radford states that most evidence of ghosts in photographs or video are "...brief, ambiguous anomalies recorded with low-quality cameras." Radford believes that with camera technology advancing, especially with smart phones, there should be clearer, sharper images of ghosts. But the photos remain low quality and vague."Orbs"
According to University of Westminster professor Annette Hill, unusual light sources were often interpreted as "ghost lights" in spirit photography. Hill says that with the advent of digital photography, "the ghost light is re-imagined as an orb", and many paranormal-themed websites show pictures containing visual artifacts they refer to as "orbs" that are claimed and debated as evidence of spirit presence, especially among ghost hunters.However, such common visual artifacts are simply a result of flash photography reflecting light off solid particles, such as dust, pollen, insects or liquid particles, especially rain, or even foreign material within the camera lens. These effects are especially common with modern compact and ultra-compact digital cameras. Fujifilm describes the artifacts as a common photographic problem.
Causes for apparent ghost photographs
According to Kenny Biddle and Joe Nickell in their article So You Have a Ghost In Your Photo, "Asserting that a particular image must be paranormal because it is unexplained only constitutes an example of the logical fallacy called arguing from ignorance." They explain that the flash reflecting off a camera strap can produce a bright, white strand or a "spiralling vortex of spirit energy" depending upon the material the strap is made from. Other ghostly images can result from strands of hair, jewelry or flying insects. A flash illuminating a person's breath in cold weather, cigarette smoke or fog can look like "ectoplasmic mist". Long exposures, usually several seconds, can cause ethereal, see-through shapes or streaks of lines caused when the camera moves or if the object moves during the exposure.Ben Radford, in his book "Big – If True: Adventures in Oddity" includes the phenomenon called pareidolia, the tendency for people to see faces or animals in things such as clouds, tree trunks or food, as an explanation for finding ghosts in photographs. Shadows from trees, uneven surfaces, reflections of light from water or glass can all make us see "faces". He notes that a ghost's elbow or foot are rarely reported.