Spirit Photographs of William Hope

These photographs of ‘spirits’ are taken from an album of photographs unearthed in a Lancashire second-hand and antiquarian bookshop by one of the Museum’s curators. They were taken by a controversial medium called William Hope (1863-1933). Later in his career as a “spirit photographer” he was exposed as being a fraud, using a technique of superimposing images onto his subjects to create these bone-chilling, ghastly images.

Fake or not, I think he did a pretty good job, and all done in the era where Photoshop and computers were not at his disposal. I think this ought to be included in our Inspiration section for those who dabble in alternative photography or print their own images. Head over to the National Media Museum Flickr for more of Mr. Hope’s sinister spine-tingling photos.

As we’re on the subject of ghost photos, here is also an interesting article on New Scientist discussing Ghouls on Film : Ghost or Glitch. Have a pleasant ghost-free day, my friends!

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Flickr / nationalmediamuseum