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GHOST PHOTOS
Here is a sampling of some
of my favorite ghost photos I've come across while doing research for my book,
The Case for Ghosts. These are those photos I consider the most authentic
photos of ghosts ever caught on film, but I leave it to you to decide for yourself.
(P.S. I found all of these on the internet, so I assume they're in the public
domain. If not, let me know and I'll remove the offending photo asap. Also,
if anyone has additional info on them that I haven't included, please shoot
me an e-mail.) Also, check out my recently added photo
anomalies and hoaxes page for a look at some of the most common and curious
fake or hoaxed ghost photos out there.
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Perhaps
the most famous of all ghost photos, this shot from 1936 of the Brown Lady
of Rynham Hall has an interesting pedigree. What makes it so compelling
is that the photo was taken not be a ghost hunter looking for the things,
but by two innocent photographers sent by the London magazine Country
Living to take some interior shots of the building. What's also interesting
about this shot is that in contrast to most photos in which the figure is
not seen until after the film is developed, the spectral figure of a woman
was seen descending the stairway seconds before the shutter was snapped.
The negatives on this photo have been scrutinized by literally hundreds
of experts (and no small number of skeptics) who can find no evidence of
it being either a hoax or a double exposure. It has been, however, suggested
the figure could be the result of a smudged fingerprint on the lens, though
this seems unlikely and doesn't account for why the same smudge wasn't seen
on the many preceeding photos taken by the same camera. As such, this highly
controversial and almost universally recognized "capture" remains
among the best photographic evidence for the existence of ghosts ever taken. |
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This
one's a little a little more difficult to make out, but it remains among
my favorites. If you look very hard, you can make out what appears to be
the face of a boy among the branches in the upper right hand corner of the
photo (the close-up at right brings these features out more clearly.) I
don't have much information on this shot other than that the photographer
was trying to take a picture of a bird outside his second-story window when
the boy's face appeared, making it especially spooky. Normally I'm not a
big fan of "faces in bushes" photos as I think most of them are
simply shadows of light and dark tricking the eye, but since this one is
in color and the face has fleshtones, it takes on a certain authenticity
I find hard to ignore. |
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This
famous ghost photo of a young girl looking out from a raging fire was taken
during a 1995 structure fire at Wem town hall in Shropshire, England. Shot
from across the street by a local photographer, nothing unusual was seen
at the time but once the negative was developed he noticed what appeared
to be a young girl standing in the doorway of the burning building. Though
at first thought she appears to be a very alive person caught in the flames,
firemen found no bodies in the building afterwards. Interestingly, however,
there is a bit of local folklore which claims that a young girl named Jane
Churm accidentally burned the town hall to the ground in 1677 by dropping
a candle, and her ghost has been reputed to haunt Wem town hall ever since.
Once a firebug, always a firebug it seems. |
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You've
got to love this one; it's one of the all time classics.When visiting her
mother's grave in 1959, Mrs. Mabel Chinnery took this shot of her husband
seated in the car. When the photograph was developed, a female figure appeared,
sitting in the driver-side back seat. Mrs. Chinnery and several family members
insist that the female figure is that of her mother, who appears to have
taken her customary place in the back seat and is patiently waiting to be
driven home. A photographic expert examined the print and declared it to
be neither a reflection nor a double exposure. Notice that "mom"
appears to be a pretty solid ghost, with no hint of transparency or light
from the rear windows shining through her! |
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My
favorite ghost photo is this one I came across on the web back in 2000.
It shows what appears to be a transparent, reflective figure standing in
front of the hood of the car on the left side of the photo (see detail at
right). I don't have many details about the photo other than the boy in
the picure had just purchased the car and he and his Mother were shot washing
it (the flair of light in the middle is sunlight reflecting off the spray
from the hose) when the mysterious figure appeared. I do recall something
about some teenager having committed suicide in the house at right, but
that sounds a little suspicious to me (though one never knows.) Easily one
of the more interesting ghost photos I've come across over the years. |
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Another
interesting photo is this one I also found on the web back in 2000. Again,
I have few details about the picture other than the couple who shot it didn't
notice the little girl watching them from the dining room at the time they
took the picture (detail at right), nor did they have any other children.
It has been speculated the figure could be a child's doll, but I understand
that the couple denied they had any dolls (the baby certainly appears too
young for dolls yet) and I find it difficult to imagine the couple would
deny having such a thing on hand when it could be easily checked out. If
it is the ghost of a child, however, what is she doing there? Could she
be attracted to the display of affection being displayed in the next roomor
perhaps could she be jealous? |
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This
well known photo was taken in the Combermere Abbey Library in 1891 by Sybell
Corbet. The exposure length was approximately one hour, and the figure of
a man appears to be sitting in the armchair located in the foreground (it's
difficult to make out, but a head and arm can just be discerned sitting
in the chair). At the time this photograph was being taken, Lord Combermere
(a top British cavalry commander) was being buried four miles away and the
house was said to have been locked and empty at the time. One explanation
frequently offered by skeptics is that during the lengthy exposure a servant
inadvertently sat in the chair for a short time, noticed the camera, and
hastily left, leaving what is effectively a fuzzy double exposure. The main
thing that argues against this theory, however, aside from the fact that
all members of the household were supposedly attending the funeral at the
time, is the lack of lower torso. A double exposure should have left a more
substantial image of the entire torso with the arms and legs being indistinct
(being that they would have been in motion during the exposure time). Difficult
to decide either way, but an interestingand perhaps one of the oldestexamples
of all the allegedly bonifide spirit photos. |
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One
of those "too-good-to-be-true" photos, this one actually has a
pretty good pedigree because it was shot by a professional paranormal investigator
(and notice it was also taken in broad daylight, as opposed to most cemetery
investigations which are almost always shot at night). The picture was taken
at the Bachelor's Grove Cemetery in Illinois by the Ghost Research Society
on August 10, 1991. Photographer Mari Huff was using high-speed monochromatic
film in the area where their equipment had detected several electromagnetic
anomalies, and captured this image of a woman in period costumecomplete
in a burial shroud of the erasitting on a gravestone. Note that parts
of her lower legs appear to be transparent. Looks staged, I know, but then
what's a real ghost supposed to look like? |
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I
don't know much about this picture other than it appears to have been taken
sometime during the First World War, making it unlikely to be a hoax. My
guess is that the ghostly figure at the back of the room (enlargement at
right) was one of the group's comrades who simply refuses to admit that
he's dead and sees no reason why he shouldn't be in the picture. Notice
that even as a ghost he still wears his uniform. This would be an obvious
Photoshop hoax if it weren't for the fact that the picture was taken a good
sixty years before Photoshop was invented! |
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This
classic shot has one of the best pedigrees among spirit photos because it
was shot under carefully controlled circumstances with numerous witnesses
present, making fakery especially difficult. Taken in 1978 at the Sunnyvale,
California Toys-R-Us by the crew from the TV program That's Incredible!
this infra-red film image of the young man leaning against the wall was
NOT seen by any of the people present at the time, and he does not appear
in the high speed footage shot from the same vantage point at the same time.There's
a story that a young man died at the location where the store now stands
back in 1869 from a accidentally self-inflicted axe wound, which might explain
his unusual clothing. The store was known for the intense poltergeist activity
that took place there prior to the investigation, implying that at least
some "noisy ghosts" are more than simply misdirected telekinetic
energy as has been frequently suggested. |
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Another
famous photo, this one from 1924, shows the faces of two recently deceased
crewmen who appeared in the waves alongside the merchant ship S.S. Watertown.
Normally I'm not a big fan of faces appearing in grainy photos due to the
brain's tendency to see make order out of chaos (known as "matrixing")
but this case is different in that the faces were seen by numerous members
of the crew for several days prior to the shot being taken and were positively
identified by members of the crew as those of two crewmen who suffocated
while cleaning out an oil tank a few days earlier. The Burns Detective Agency
analyzed the negative for fakery and found none. |
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Another
old classic and one of the better captures, this photograph from 1919, taken
by retired RAF officer Sir Victor Goddard, shows his squadron from the Royal
Navy vessel HMS Daedalus. Notice the transparent face peering around
the man in the upper left corner of the photo. Several men from this squadron
identified the face as belonging to mechanic Freddy Jackson, who had been
killed two days earlier when he accidentally walked into a spinning propeller
blade. His funeral had taken place earlier that day. Apparently, Freddy
didn't want to miss all the fun. |
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Taken
in 1946 in Queensland, Australia, this photograph was taken by a mother
standing at her teenage daughter's grave. Nobody was in sight at the time,
but when the picture was processed the image of a young child appeared,
apparently sitting on the grave. There were no children nearby and the mother
does not recognize the child, thereby reducing (though not entirely eliminating)
the possibility that it's a double exposure. Some skeptics have pointed
out that the picture looks staged, especially since the apparition appears
to be looking directly at the camera. I find this to be a poor argument
for a hoax, however, as one would expect human spirits to react to someone
shooting a picture of them in much the same way they would during life.
Notice also that in nearly every picture on this page the apparition appears
to be looking directly into the camera lens, further challenging the logic
of this objection. |
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This
picture made the rounds on the internet a few years ago and though that
alone is enough to make one suspicious of its authenticity, it's still an
interesting photo. Supposedly taken in Manila (Eastwood City) a few years
ago, the story goes that these young ladies had asked a passing stranger
to photograph them with their Nokia 7250 phone with integrated camera and
the transparent figure on the right appeared. Further details are unknown
and while I admit this could be a photoshop trick, if it is, it's a good
one. |
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I
put both of these pictures together not because they were taken at the same
time, but becasue of the similar look and subject matter. Both supposedly
show a transparent monk or religious figure of some kind standing in front
of alters, they were not apparent to the photographer at the time, and I
believe both were shot by members of the clergy.The picture on the left
was taken in the 1960s by the Rev. K.F. Lord at Newby Church, N.Yorkshire.
A BBC team examined this photo back in the 1970s and concluded that it was
definitely NOT a double exposure and that the negative had not been tampered
with, but the picture still generates a lot of disagreement today due to
the creepy appearance of the figure. The photo on the right was taken at
Sefton Church in September, 1999, and shows what appears to be a figure
in the all-black clothing of a vicar or minister. I guess some religious
folks love to hang out at churches even after they're dead. |
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This
is a picture that was sent to me for my opinion by a lady from North Carolina
which, unlike most I receive, has an air of authenticity about it. The photo
was taken with a Sony Cybershot 3.2 mp in Conover, North Carolina on July
16th, 2005. Notice the shadowy image of a little girl standing directly
behind the baby (especially clear in the close-up). The woman who took the
photo didn't notice the little girl when she took the photo and claims that
her and the baby were the only ones home at the time. In a follow-up investigation,
she told me there is no history of paranormal activity in the home but the
woman's family has had a number of paranormal incidents in their life that
leads me to surmise they might somehow be prone to attracting entities.
(Photo used with permission.) |
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