PROFESSIONAL MEDIUM WILLIAM Hope worked as a ‘spirit photographer’, capturing images of the dead visiting their relatives from the other side.
In the 1920s, when most of the photos below were taken, people called on English photographer Hope to help them contact the dead, and he provided them with grainy, black and white images that purported to show their loved ones.
Today, we can recognise these photographs for what they were – fakes. But back then, by using double exposed glass plates, Hope was able to create spooky images that seemed to have fooled those who sat for him.
Hope was himself exposed as a fraudster in 1922, but continued to practice until his death 11 years later. These images are all available on the National Media Museum Flickr account.
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