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A
GHOSTLY
GALLERY |
The
Vanishing Lamplighter The
Ghost in the Stereoscope To
the right, another figure can be seen--a gawker who did
not stay around long enough to be immortalized by the
camera. For
the purpose of amusement, the photographer may carry us
even into the realms of the supernatural. His art enables
him to give a spiritual appearance to one or more of his
figures, and to exhibit them as "thin air" amid the solid
realities of the stereoscopic picture. The
first firm to mass-market 3-D images, the London
Stereoscopic Company, published views (like the one
above), entitled "The Ghost in the Stereoscope." Produced
in the late 1850s, they often carry a printed
acknowledgement of Brewster's contribution.
The
first ghosts in photographs were the result of accidents.
During a long exposure--such as those required in
photography's infancy--a person who stood still would
register as clearly as a building. But a person who moved
out of camera range after only a portion of the exposure
was completed would instead appear as a see-through blur.
It happened with the lamplighter in this detail from a
photograph by the London Stereoscopic Company.
In
his landmark 1856 book on 3-D photography, The
Stereoscope, the optical scientist Sir David Brewster
suggested:
While
stereoscopic ghost images were technological marvels,
they were intended (as Brewster suggested) as amusements.
But in 1861, a Boston engraver named William H. Mumler
claimed that he had taken actual photographic records of
ghosts. This set off an international wave of spirit
photography--and a scientific controversy that lasted
well into the 20th century.
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Tintype,
Sixth-plate ( 2.75 x 3.25 inches ) circa
1875 Phillips
Bros. (Pontiac, Michigan) Man
Reading with Female Spirit Behind Albumen
carte de visite, 2.25 x 4 inches circa
1870 Albumen
Print, 3.5 x 4 inches circa
1875 F.
M. Parkes (England) "Mrs.
Collins & Her Husband's Father, Recognized by
Several." Albumen
carte de visite, 2 x 3.8 inches 1875 Lady
Helena Newenham and the Spirit of Her
Daughter Albumen
carte de visite, 2.25 x 4 inches June
4, 1872 Among
the first spirit photographs made in
Britain. Edouard
Isidore Buguet (France, b. 1840) Mons.
Leymarie and Mons. C. with Spirit of Edouard
Poiret Carbon
print or Woodburytype carte de visite 2.25
x 3.5 inches circa
1874 Leymarie
was the editor of La Revue Spirite, which circulated
this image. Buguet and Leymarie were both sentenced to
prison for fraud in 1875.
Unidentified
Photographer (U.S.)
Frederick
A. Hudson (England)
Frederick
A. Hudson (England)
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