Mystical photos of the XIX century

In 1871, a mysterious woman under the black veil appeared in the Boston Photos Study of William Mamler. She asked to take a picture of her with the dead spouse, saying that he would open his face only before shooting. Mary Todd more than once visited the spiritual salons and knew what tricks would be expected. But when the negative was manifested, she was in the arms of his beloved husband – Abraham Lincoln. How? Hand agility and some fraud.

In the 1860s, photographic equipment was far from perfection. For the creation of one snapshot, several minutes left, and all this time was required to sit still. If someone else flashed in front of the lens, he remained in the image of a ghostly silhouette.

This happened to the portrait of a four-year-old son of Queen Victoria Arthur, who in 1854 did Roger Fenton. Nanny was frightened that the baby will fall during the shooting, and hit the frame just a few seconds. Outcome: in the picture to the child stretches hands translucent female figure.

The first photo with the "ghost" Mamler also made by chance. Once, working on a self portrait, he noticed on a negative figure of a young girl and decided to joke over friends: Printed a picture and said that this is his deceased cousin. The story was accepted for the truth and soon we were sold across the city.

In fact, the silhouette formed a trail left on a poorly washed glass photosensitive plate, and it was golden lived. It was 1861 year. America is covered by the Civil War between the North and South, and the relatives of the dead are ready for everything to comfort. Spiritic salons opened on every corner. Mamler threw his job in the jewelry workshop and together with his wife founded the case: the spouse spoke with dWhami, and he photographed them.

More precisely, photographed William living people, but in pictures, as a rule, it was possible to see their dead relatives. If the figure was blurred or absent at all, the spouses explained this by the unwillingness of the otherworldly forces to come to contact. Mamlers were not given guarantees, and all the same customers were ready to pay $ 10 for photosaans, five times more than ordinary.

However, there were skeptics who believed that Mamler resorts to tricks, and strange stories confirmed. For example, one of the clients was photographed with a brother who died in the civil war, and after a while he returned. True, instead of accusing to fake a photographer, American said that the evil spirit was to blame, who tried to confuse her.

Such cases became more and more, and the wizard’s reputation was shuffled on the seam. From Boston it was time to leave. In 1868, Mamer moved to New York, where he instantly became the most famous specialist in the city by a spiritual photo.

And everything went well, until March 16, 1869, a certain William Bouldich was not appeared to him with a traditional order. The client was a local sheriff worked under cover. The picture he received, but stated that in the image a relative does not look like himself, and most importantly – actually alive. So the lawsuit was initiated about fraud.

Witness accusations made professional photographers who explained in detail how Mamler created pictures. It turned out, he used the double exposure method: combined the glass plate-negative portrait of the customer with another plate. For example, with the previous shooting, there are live people from "ghosts".

One of the prosecutors even introduced the judge of the picture, where he himself was captured with the spirit of Abraham Lincoln (as we see, the president, even the deceased, turned out to be a popular person). And therefore, with a certain ability to photograph the "ghost" can each. But Mamler’s clients were still seen in the unclear silhouettes of their deceased close, and the case was closed for lack of evidence.

Free, but lost a reputation a photographer preferred to go back to Boston, where he made famous Snapshot of Mary Todd with the late spouse. But even after that, it was not possible to return the victim.

William Mameler died in 1884, pre-destroying his negatives. By that time, the spiritual photograph became a separate genre that there was a lot of supporters, including in other countries.

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