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Spirit Photography Back to Ghost Pictures
Welcome to our spirit photography section. Spirit photography or "spiritography," as some call it, is the practice of
producing photographs that reveal the spirits of deceased people.
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Spirit photography can have several meanings when one researches its history.
Spirit photography and its close association with spiritualism of the late 1800s and early 1900s is just one
example. Started in America, the Spiritualist Movement actually began in the mid-1800s during the time of the
rise of Transcendentalism, continuing in popularity until the early 1900s. The movement also saw a
resurgence right after World War I. Mediums would purportedly communicate with a person’s lost loved ones,
but many of the spiritualists turned out to be frauds. Part of the “parlor trick” was to convince the grieving (and
paying) patron that indeed paranormal phenomena was occurring in the room from their deceased loved one.
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During the séance which was held in a dimly lit room, it was not
uncommon for ghostly messages from the dead to be accompanied
with levitating and moving objects, ghost voices, apparitions and other
ghostly tricks to aid in convincing the paying customer that they were
having the experience of a lifetime. Many of these fraudulent
mediums were exposed by skeptics, none greater than magician
Harry Houdini himself, who detested the easily recognizable trickery.
Not all spiritualists were dishonest however, as the Spiritualist
Movement eventually gave rise to Pentecostal and charismatic
Christianity. See: Mediums & Ectoplasm Ghost Club
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During this time, spirit photography
also was on the rise and first
occurred quite by accident.
Photographers noticed that during a
long exposure, if a person moved in
and out of the camera range, it would
be recorded as a ghostly presence.
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Spirit Photography
Spirit Photographs
See samples of spirit
photography and the spirit
guide Katie...
Spirit Pictures
Awesome collection of
spirit photography pictures
owned by Jack & Beverly.
Spirit Photos
Awesome collection of
spirit photography pictures
owned by Jack & Beverly.
Spirit Pics
Miscellaneous spirit
photography images for you
to see.
Thought & Psychic
Photography
Psychic and thought
photography differs from
spirit photography...
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One such artist, Sir David Brewster, produced these photographs for entertainment purposes, and
published a book about what he deemed 3D photography in 1865 entitled, The Stereoscope. The first spirit photography to be claimed as “authentic” however, came from William Mumler in 1862
when he produced his first spirit photographs. Mumler taught that spirits could imprint their images on film, thus producing a faint, floating ghostly image beside loved ones. Mumler was eventually
accused of fraud through a court trial with testimony brought against him by PT Barnum, ironically a famous circus owner. See: William Mumler Spirit Photography |
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It seems after every war, spirit photography experienced a
surge in popularity, due in part to families seeking proof of
immortality for their loved ones lost in battle. This
happened quite a bit after the Civil War, and saw a similar
peaked interest after World War I when photographers
would add images of loved ones, lost to the war, into
photographs with their family. At the time, this was not
claimed to be spirit photography, but certainly
demonstrates the capabilities of photographers from that
era in superimposing images from one photograph onto
another. See: Arthur Conan Doyle Ghost Photographs
The first examples of spirit photography were done by
double-exposure. These photographs typically have a
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person sitting or standing still, with a see-through ghost appearing
behind them. The ghost was easily created by having the subject
remain still, while another person (dressed as a ghost) would slip
behind them and into the picture for a shorter amount of time than
the camera shutter remained open. As photographic technology
grew, the photographer could create better spirit photographs by
simply superimposing a ghostly image onto the plate before taking
the photograph with the living person. Sometimes this was also
done as a means of trickery, in claiming special psychic and
spiritual photography abilities, all for a fee of course.
In the 1900s spirit photography also took on some other forms. One
form of spirit photography is actually known as thoughtography
(projected thermography). Thoughtography is when special psychic
abilities are used to place either a mental image, or to bring forth
psychic images from the spirit world onto a camera's film.
In the early 1900s, a professor of psychology, Tomokichi Fukurai
began working with clairvoyants to mentally burn images from the
mind onto photographs.
In the 1960s, Ted Serios claimed to be able to burn mental images
onto Polaroid film, while others such as Uri Geller in the 1990s
claimed to be able to burn mental images onto 35mm film while the
camera cap was still over the lens.
Some of these men have been called frauds, yet some ghost
hunters say the technique does indeed work if a good psychic is
adept at creating this type of spirit photography. Many credible,
famous paranormal investigators such as Hans Holzer have
successfully used what they deem as psychic photography. By
using mediums who are able to receive and burn images of the
ghosts haunting a particular location, these paranormal
investigators have used this technique to assist in capturing
information to prove and resolve many a haunting.
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Right:
Used with the
permission of
collectors, Jack
and Beverly of
"A Collection of
Collections."
This fine spirit
photography
example was
made by Carl
Meinerth of
Newberyport,
Massachusetts.
The bearded
man behind the
elderly lady is
presumed to be
her husband in
spirit.
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Go to the Angels & Ghosts Forum & discuss
Spirit Photography!
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Spirit Photography content copyright 2004 -2007
by Angels & Ghosts, LLC & AngelsGhosts.com
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