Ghost biography

The place of work, BBC Future on July 7, as photographic technology develops, more and more images appeared with mysterious figures depicted on them - ghosts in the frame, as some believe. February of the year, Hampton Court Palace in London. But the next day, cousins ​​find that Brooke in the photo turned out not one. Following her, a gray image moves - a tall woman in a cloak.

The next picture of this anomaly is no longer. What was it? A unique documentary photo of the tormented soul, which is in no way can you find reassurance? Or something that lends itself to a completely rational explanation? This ghost is only one of the latest characters in the history of ghost photos. Such mysterious shadows appeared in the pictures since the invention of the first cameras.

With each new breakthrough in photographic technologies, new types of "ghosts" arose - and sometimes they were added to the pictures specifically. I don’t think that these “ghosts” are something that could not be achieved with the help of different techniques of photography, ”said Michael Protchard, general director of the royal photographic society in Britain. The mind and sixth sense of the "ghost-photo" are rooted in the 19th century.

In years, many photographers experimented with special effects, such as stereoscopic image and double exhibiting. But some unprincipled photomesians soon realized that these techniques can be used to enrich. The American amateur photographer William Mamler in the X, as expected, became the first person who captured the “spirit” photograph. The author of the photo, Thinkstock signature to the photo, House with ghosts.

Do not believe? Take a look at the photograph in that famous picture you could make out the ghost of his late cousin. He really came to him or not, remains a mystery, but Mamler's ability to capture the ghosts of deceased people, usually relatives in photographs, soon brought clientele to him. At first, experts could not find signs of fake on the Mamler Ghost-Photo. And the amateur gradually became a professional: more and more people came to him who wanted to get an otherworldly picture with relatives who died in the American Civil War.

It seems that Mamler sought such an effect, inserting a glass plate into the camera with a ready -made positive picture of the glass photosensitive plate, who died ahead, on which the client’s photograph was taken. Due to such a double exposition, a picture of not only the customer was obtained, but also the “ghost” image from an additional plate. The list of customers of the photographer grew, but the number of his critics also multiplied.

One of the most violent was the American showman Pi Tu Barnum, who claimed that these ghosts are simply exploited by the gullibility of grief of the sorrowful families and individuals. The accusations were also called that Mamler allegedly broke into the houses to steal photos of dead relatives, and some “perfumes” in his pictures, in general, continued to live successfully and hello.

The author of the photo, Thinkstock Signature to the photo, Shadows on cemetery slabs may seem like dead acquaintances Mamler appeared before the trial on charges of fraud, and Barnum gave testimony against him. The most striking moment of the process was the episode when a deliberately falsified photograph was shown in the meeting hall, designed to demonstrate how easy it was to take a picture in the style of Mamler.

In the photo, Barnum itself was shown with Abraham Linkolnoy. It looked like ghost hunters finally reached the photographer. Despite the evidence, a mamler was charged with fraud, but the damage to his reputation was already caused, and his career as a photographer “Spirits” came to an end. The techniques that he used were improved by his followers at the end of the XIX century, when the demand for photographs with ghosts grew, but these negatives of the negativity could also not get rid of criticism in their address.

The English priest and medium William Staynton Moses was one of the early researchers of this topic. Here is what Alan Merdy, the chairman of the Ghost Club founded in the year and is considered the oldest organization in the world to study and investigate paranormal phenomena: “By the year, he studied more photographs in which ghosts were allegedly photographed. In his opinion, among them there were no more than a dozen of those who, with a stretch, could be considered an example of something supernatural.

And he added: "There are people who, in a mop with a rag, are ready to admit their untimely departed relative." But more and more people started cameras, and more and more, respectively, became a “ghost-photo”. The author of the photo, Thinkstock Signature to the photo, the more photographs, the more ghosts in the pictures about the same period one of the most famous photographs of Ghost was taken.

In the year, Sibell Corbet photographed Comberism in the English county of Cheshire in the library of the abbey.In the chair in the foreground of the frame was a man, or rather, the light shape of his head, collar and right hand. It was argued that this is the spirit of the late Lord Combermir - he died shortly before the picture, rushing on a horse, and at the time when the photograph was taken, his funeral was just taking place.

The excerpt from the photo was an hour, and therefore the specialists-sabotage experts considered that during such a long exhibiting, the servant simply entered the room and sat in a chair for some time. However, most servants said that at that time they were at the funeral of their lord. After the war, by the beginning of the First World War, spiritualism and ghostly photography had a number of noticeable supporters - including the writer Arthur Conan Doyle, a member of the Ghost Club.

The sense of loss, which covered the population of many countries after the war, led to the desire to somehow reunite with lost relatives and friends. The Englishman William Hope, who is already having an appropriate reputation, willingly offered his services in this area. The author of the photo, Thinkstock Signature to the photo, blurry figures go along the beach: ghosts decided to sunbathe and swim?

Like Mamler, Hope was pursued by accusations of fraud. In his relation to the year, an investigation was conducted by the commission of the Commission of the Society of Supernatural Studies, headed by the famous specialist on such issues by Harry Price. He studied the case and found out that Hope really frauded using two glass plates - one with a ghostly silhouette, the other photosensitive, on which the images of the “ghost” appeared and the shooting object at the same time.

But, unlike Mamler, after this revelation, Hope still continued to work as a medium and "photographer of spirits", supported by his many zealous supporters. More than a decade later, Price investigated a case in which everything was much less clear. In the year, two employees of Country Life magazine took pictures at the foot of the ladder at the Rhinham Hall estate in the English county of Norfolk.

The photographer Captain Hubert Proven and his assistant Indra Shira had just gathered to take a photograph of this staircase when Shira suddenly saw a “vaporous form, which gradually took the outlines of a woman” and descended to them up the stairs. A few seconds later, photographers hastily took a picture. It was published in the journal Country Life and was called the Brown Lady.

Some believed that it was the figure of Lady Dorothy Townsndn, who, as they said, visited the ghost estate after her mysterious death in the year. The author of the photo, Thinkstock Signature to the photo, new technologies and features of smartphone cameras allow you to see more “ghosts” in our photographs, Price believed that in this case no attempts were made to falsify the picture.

I was told a very simple story: Mr. Indra Shira saw a ghost descending the stairs, just at the moment when the captain’s head was blown under a black bedspread. Just a cry of a warning - and the cap was removed from the lens, the outbreak worked, and we all see the results of this. I cannot drop their story and have no right not to believe them. If this is a fake, then it can only be the result of the conspiracy between these two men.

But the negativity itself cannot lie, ”said Price. But there were people who are more skeptical. In the year, the society of supernatural studies decided that the reason for the appearance of the“ spirit ”in the picture was a random movement of the camera during a six -second exposition. Like many other researchers of this topic, Merdy himself saw a countless picture, which, as stated, was depicted ghosts.

Ghosts. Ghosts. Ghosts. In the figure, modern digital cameras can create a fake “spirit” with no less ease. Unlike film chambers, the cameras in the phones usually take a picture gradually - approximately on the same principle, as the scanner scans a page with the text. This is a slightly longer process - especially in low lighting, when a telephone chamber needs more time to remember enough visual information to obtain a photo of acceptable quality.

This process, known as the “smoothing of the image”, is able to lead to the fact that moving objects in the frame may look distorted. The author of the photo, Getty signature for the photo, Slenderman, he is a skinny man, became the hero of the “Ghost-Photo” movie now experiences the Renaissance, giving birth to Internet memes as the skinny man Slenderman-a supernatural character, which is sometimes added to pictures for the dramatic effect.

Despite the fact that we are well aware of the techniques of computer manipulations with images, there are many people who believe that the spirits can be photographed.Our interest in otherworldly life seems to be immortal - it only constantly adapts to new technologies and scientific knowledge of our time.