Say Boo!!!!

A look at spirit photography

By: Sam Little

Since the dawning of the camera age spits have been making guest appearances in photographs. With such a following of these types of images it did not take long before people were cashing in on the craze. There were countless men and women who claimed to be able to create real legitimate spirit photos for their clients. Sadly most of these photos were in fact faked and easily explainable today, but during the early age of photo they were mind boggling. In this installment I hope to educate you a little on spirit photography and just what it was and how it worked. We will look at a few of it's top notch practitioners as well as look at a few ways that these photos could have been faked.

Let's first get down to the nitty gritty as my French teacher used to say back in high school. Spirit photography reportedly began in 1861 in Boston. William Mumler had attempted to take a self portrait of himself but upon developing the picture he discovered something he did not expect to find. Within the picture of himself was the image of a girl. Mumler quickly noticed the girl was his young cousin, who had passed away 12 years earlier. Mumler was instantly enthralled into the world of the spirits. He has already developed himself to be a rather talented medium and married a medium himself. He began to produce amazing spirit photos for people from all over and the word spread quick of his exploits.

Mumler's most recognized and most celebrated photo is of a lady sitting down wearing mourning clothes and the image of Abe Lincoln stands over her looking down. The story is in itself as amazing as Mumler's photos are. A lady had contacted Mumler about doing a photo and she gave him false information. Mumler went ahead and took the pic, not knowing the true identity of the lady he had photographed. To his shock there was the assassinated president Lincoln. It was only after the photo was shown to the woman that t was revealed that she was in fact the window of the famous president. Mumler could not have known this and would have had no way to fake this photo. It has been published countless times and is used to represent one of the finest examples of true spirit photography. This was one of the few instances where society had felt a connection with a president after he had departed the world.

Here is another of the amazing accounts Mumler has made reality.

Bromson Murray, a Bostonian living in New York, who records that just as a photograph was about to be taken slipped into a trance, which was something he had not ever done before. When the plate was developed it showed Murray in this trance. A spirit woman stood behind him with it's hands rested on his shoulder. Despite the amazing image the man, nor any of his friends could identify this woman. Before the photo was taken Mumler's wife ( a powerful medium) told him that a spirit woman was seeking to announce her survival to her husband. She had not been able to reach him. Her name was Bonner, and she would manifest in the photo of Murray that was about to be taken. She said she would appear with an anchor of flowers. (which were visible in the photo.) Sometime afterwards Murrey was talking to a friend in New York about the photo and she told him that recentally she met a man named Bonner who hailed from Georgia and that it might be a good idea to approach him about the photograph. When contacted Bonner confirmed the lady in the picture was his dead wife and comparisons between the spirit image and the pictures taken while still alive revealed just that. The matter did not end there in fact it got much stranger. Bonner wrote to his wife and placed the letter in an envelope. The envelope was sent to Dr. Flint, a New York medium. The next day the letter was returned still sealed, but containing a 7 page response from his wife. She suggested Bonner sit with Mumler and have his photo taken. She would appear wearing a crown of flowers. The photo taken did in fact show the woman again and she was in fact wearing a crown of flowers has she had promised.

Just has with today's orb photos and misty images spirit photos came under the ever watchful eyes of skeptics and researchers. The most noted is that of Traill Taylor. Taylor would derive that to produce a spirit photo neither light, nor lens, nor even camera was needed. He came to this conclusion after working with medium Edward Wyllie. Whillie had developed a knack for for taking spirit photos without a camera. He would simply place the blank photo plate in his hands and the image would appear upon developing the plate images of people would appear. This type of spirit photography became known as dorchagraphy by Andrew Gardnning. Later the term would be refined to psychography.

Gardnning would conduct experiments with several famed mediums and spirit photographers alike. His most amazing work was with the Scotsman Duguid. Duguid was not unlike Wyllie with the one exception that not only did he take photos by holding the plates, he left the plates in the wrapper they came in. His pictures were so crisp that many photographers them self envied him and his work.

Many and I mean many theories have garrison to explain the phenomena known as spirit photography. One is mental projection. A client wants so badly to see a loved one on the film that they actually unknowingly project the image to the plate. This is a very awkward method of thinking as it implies that nearly anyone would be able to mentally project an image of a dead person onto film. Obviously that is not an easy task so this method is often overlooked. The most wanted to believe theory is that the images are in fact the real spirits of the departed. This would be the idea outcome for researchers but right now to many examples or trickery exist to make that a reliable answer.

While we do not completely know the reason behind the true pictures we have many ways to rationalize the fakes. One method used, in fact the most common method used was to double expose the film. This would be done by simply using a plate and photographing some one standing slightly of to one side of the film. Now that same plate would be used again to photograph a person sitting in a chair or standing and the result is what appears to be a slightly ethereal person standing behind a solid one and thus a spirit photo is made. Of course this does not work to explain regognizible people in spirit photos but than again if the photographer knows in advanced who is coming they can simply use a picture and do the same effect.

Another very sly and not so easy method to produce these images was to use a thin sheet. Behind the sheet will be a living person. The camera used will have a very bright flash. The result is the person behind the background sheet will come through as the silhouette of a dead person and then one is left to decide who the shadow looks like. Now you have a small understanding how spirit photos work and just what they are. Below is a few examples of some of the better known photos, enjoy.