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Spirit Photography: The
production of photographs on which alleged spirit-forms
are visible. When the plate is developed there appears, in
addition to the likeness of the sitter, a shape resembling
more or less distinctly the human form, which at the
moment of exposure was imperceptible to the normal vision.
Spiritualists assert that there are photographs of
spirits—the spirits of departed friends and relatives of
the sitters—and that the presence of a medium B required
to facilitate their production. Notwithstanding that on
the recognition of the supposed spirit by the sitter aad
others rests the main evidence in favour of spirit
pictography, the " astral figure " is generally very vague
aad indistinct, with the head and shoulders enveloped in
dose-clinging draperies. The practice of spirit
photography
•riginated in America some fifty years ago, and has
enjoyed a fitful existence to the present day. It was
first introduced by Mumler, a Boston photographer, in
1862. Dr. Gardner, of the same city, was photographed by
Mumler, aad on the plate appeared an image which the
sitter identified as his cousin, who had died twelve years
before. Dr. Gardner published abroad his experience, and
the new photography was at once adopted by spiritualists,
who saw in it a means of proving their beliefs. In 1863,
however, Dr. Gardner discovered that in at least two
instances a living model had sat for Mumler's " spirit"
pictures. Though he continued to believe that some of the
photographs might be genuine, his exposure of Mumler's
fraud ifectively checked the movement for a time. After
the ipse of six years Mumler appeared in New York, where
ite authorities endeavoured to prosecute him, but the
evidence against him was insufficient to prove fraud, ^d
he was acquitted. Spirit photography had flourished i
America for some ten years before it became known
•. Britain. Mr. and Mrs. Guppy, the well-known :
ritualistic mediums, endeavoured without success to :
roduce spirit photographs in private, and at length called
•i the aid of a professional photographer, Mr. Hudson. A
--otograph of Mr. Guppy now revealed a dim, draped spirit"
form. Hudson speedily became popular, and is studio was as
largely patronized as Mumler's had been. Mr. Thomas
Slater, a London optician, made careful observations of
his process without being able to detect any fraud. Mr.
Beattie, a professional photographer, and something of a
sceptic, made the following statement concerning Hudson's
performances: " They were not made ty double exposure, nor
by figures projected in space in any
••ay; they Were not the result of mirrors; they were not
produced by any machinery in the background, behind it,
above it, or below it, nor by any contrivance connected
wth the bath, the camera, or the camera-slide." Mr. Trail!
Taylor, editor of the British Journal of Photography
•aid that " at no time during the preparation, exposure,
or development of the pictures was Mr, Hudsom within ten
feet of the camera or dark room. Appearances of an
abnormal kind did certainly appear on several plates."
Such
testimonies as the above, from the lips of skilled and
disinterested witnesses, would naturally seem to raise
spirit photography to the level of a genuine psychic
phenomenon. But a careful analysis of the evidence, such
as is given by Mrs. Sidgwick in her article on Spirit
Photography in the Psychical Research Society's
Proceedings, vol. VII., will serve to show how even a
trained investigator may be deceived by sleight-of-hand.
And it is notable that Mr. Beattie himself afterwards
pointed out instances of double exposure in Hudson's
productions. In spite of this, Hudson continued to
practise, and the various spiritualist magazines continued
to lend him their support, with the exception of the
Spiritualist, whose editor, himself a practical
photographer, had aided Mr. Beattie in the denunciation of
spirit photography. Another enthusiastic spiritualist, Mr.
Enmore Jones, who at first professed to recognise a dead
daughter in one of the pictured " spirits," afterwards
admitted that he had been mistaken. Those who had pinned
their faith to the genuineness of the photographic
manifestations were naturally unwilling to relinquish
their belief in what they considered a sure proof of the
reality of the spirit-world, and ingenious explanations _
were offered to cover the circumstance of the apparent
double exposure. The spirit aura, they said, differed from
the natural atmosphere in its refracting power, and it was
not to be wondered at that objects were sometimes
duplicated. And so Hudson retained a considerable measure
of popularity. Mr, Beattie himself afterwards attempted to
produce spirit photographs, and succeeded in obtaining
vague blotches and flaws on his pictures, some of them
bearing a dim resemblance to a human figure. But there is
reason to believe that a hired assistant, who provided
studio and apparatus, was not entirely above suspicion. In
1874 Buguet (q.v.), a Paris photographer crossed over to
London where he commenced the practice of spirit
photography. Many of his pictures were recognized by his
clients, and even when he had been tried by the French
Government, and had admitted deception, there were those
who refused to regard his confession as spontaneous, and
inclined to the opinion that he had been bribed by the
Jesuits to confess to fraud of which he was innocent!
Other spirit photographers were Parkes, a contemporary of
Hudson, and Boursneli; who produced spirit pictures in
London in more recent years. The principal evidence in
favour of spirit photography is undoubtedly the
recognition of the spirits by their friends and relatives,
but the unreliable nature of such a test can be seen when
we remember that time and again a single " spirit" has
been claimed by several persons as a near relative —the
sister of one, the grandfather of another, and so on. One
of the most prominent defenders of the mediumistic
photographers was the Rev. Stainton Moses (q.v.)—" M. A.
Oxon "—who saw in them the best proof of the reality of
spiritualism. The same view was shared by Mr. Alfred
Russel Wallace (q.v.), who said in the Arena, January,
1891: " It is that which furnishes, perhaps, the most
unassailable demonstration it is possible to obtain of the
objective reality of spiritual forms."
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