Jocko
Off With The Pixies
It being Halloween, it might be a good idea if we take another look at the photograph which, so many a book and website tell us, is the one unquestionably genuine photograph of a ghostie!
The picture in question, “The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall” was taken by a team from “Country Life” magazine, on Monday, September 19, 1936, and printed, with an article by photographer Indre Shah in the December 26 issue. But the story begins long before then....
In the early 18th century, so we are told, Charles, Second Viscount, Townsend, married Dorothy Walpole. Discovering his bride had a great deal to blush about, he locked her in an attic room, from whence, in 1726, after many years captivity, she was taken only be thrown down the stairs and thus disposed of. Her vengeful ghost still haunts the staircase, appearing to an array of 19th century celebrities and finally to "Country Life" photographers Shah and Provand.... This is their account of their astonishing adventure....
“Captain Provand took one photograph [ of the staircase, Shah writes,] while I flashed the light. He was focussing again for another exposure: I was standing by his side just behind the camera with the flashlight pistol in my hand, looking directly up the staircase.
All at once I detected an ethereal, veiled form coming slowly down the stairs. Rather excitedly I called out sharply: ‘Quick! Quick! There’s something! Are you ready?’ ‘Yes’ the photographer replied, and removed the cap from the lens. I pressed the trigger of the flashlight pistol. After the flash, and on closing the shutter. Captain Provand removed the focussing cloth from his head and, turning to me, said ‘What’s all the excitement about?’.
I directed his attention to the staircase and explained that I had distinctly seen a figure there - transparent so that the steps were visible through the ethereal form, but nevertheless, very definite and to me perfectly real. He laughed and said I must have imagined I had seen a ghost, for there was nothing now to be seen. It may be of interest that the flash from the Sasha bulb, which in this instance was used, is equivalent, I understand, to a speed of one-fiftieth part of a second.
After securing several other pictures we decided to pack up and return to Town. Nearly all the way back we were arguing about the possibility of obtaining a genuine ghost photograph. Captain Provand laid down the law most emphatically by assuring me that as a Court photographer of thirty years standing, it was quite impossible to obtain an authentic ghost photograph - unless, possibly, in a seance room - and in that connection he had no experience.
I have neither his technical skill nor long years of practical experience as a portraitist, neither am I interested in psychic phenomena: but I maintained that the form of a very refined influence was so real to my eyes that it must have been caught at that psychological moment by the lens of the camera...
When the negatives of Raynham hall were developed, I stood beside Captain Provand in the dark-room. One after the other they were placed in the developer. Suddenly Captain Provand exclaimed ‘Good Lord! There’s something on the staircase negative after all!’ I took one glance, called to him ‘hold it’ and dashed downstairs to the chemist, Mr Benjamin Jones, manager of Blake, Sandford and Blake, whose premises are immediately underneath our studio. I invited Mr Jones to come upstairs to our dark-room. He came and saw the negative just as it had been taken from the developer and placed in the adjoining hypo-bath. Afterwards he declared that had he not seen for himself the negative being fixed, he would not have believed in the genuineness of the picture. Incidentally, Mr Jones has had considerable experience as an amateur photographer in developing his own plates and films.
Mr Jones, Captain Provand and I vouch for the fact that the negative has not been retouched in any way. It has been examined critically by a number of experts. No one can account for the appearance of the ghostly figure, but it is there clear enough...”
This is the picture.... the facts will follow in the next post!
The picture in question, “The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall” was taken by a team from “Country Life” magazine, on Monday, September 19, 1936, and printed, with an article by photographer Indre Shah in the December 26 issue. But the story begins long before then....
In the early 18th century, so we are told, Charles, Second Viscount, Townsend, married Dorothy Walpole. Discovering his bride had a great deal to blush about, he locked her in an attic room, from whence, in 1726, after many years captivity, she was taken only be thrown down the stairs and thus disposed of. Her vengeful ghost still haunts the staircase, appearing to an array of 19th century celebrities and finally to "Country Life" photographers Shah and Provand.... This is their account of their astonishing adventure....
“Captain Provand took one photograph [ of the staircase, Shah writes,] while I flashed the light. He was focussing again for another exposure: I was standing by his side just behind the camera with the flashlight pistol in my hand, looking directly up the staircase.
All at once I detected an ethereal, veiled form coming slowly down the stairs. Rather excitedly I called out sharply: ‘Quick! Quick! There’s something! Are you ready?’ ‘Yes’ the photographer replied, and removed the cap from the lens. I pressed the trigger of the flashlight pistol. After the flash, and on closing the shutter. Captain Provand removed the focussing cloth from his head and, turning to me, said ‘What’s all the excitement about?’.
I directed his attention to the staircase and explained that I had distinctly seen a figure there - transparent so that the steps were visible through the ethereal form, but nevertheless, very definite and to me perfectly real. He laughed and said I must have imagined I had seen a ghost, for there was nothing now to be seen. It may be of interest that the flash from the Sasha bulb, which in this instance was used, is equivalent, I understand, to a speed of one-fiftieth part of a second.
After securing several other pictures we decided to pack up and return to Town. Nearly all the way back we were arguing about the possibility of obtaining a genuine ghost photograph. Captain Provand laid down the law most emphatically by assuring me that as a Court photographer of thirty years standing, it was quite impossible to obtain an authentic ghost photograph - unless, possibly, in a seance room - and in that connection he had no experience.
I have neither his technical skill nor long years of practical experience as a portraitist, neither am I interested in psychic phenomena: but I maintained that the form of a very refined influence was so real to my eyes that it must have been caught at that psychological moment by the lens of the camera...
When the negatives of Raynham hall were developed, I stood beside Captain Provand in the dark-room. One after the other they were placed in the developer. Suddenly Captain Provand exclaimed ‘Good Lord! There’s something on the staircase negative after all!’ I took one glance, called to him ‘hold it’ and dashed downstairs to the chemist, Mr Benjamin Jones, manager of Blake, Sandford and Blake, whose premises are immediately underneath our studio. I invited Mr Jones to come upstairs to our dark-room. He came and saw the negative just as it had been taken from the developer and placed in the adjoining hypo-bath. Afterwards he declared that had he not seen for himself the negative being fixed, he would not have believed in the genuineness of the picture. Incidentally, Mr Jones has had considerable experience as an amateur photographer in developing his own plates and films.
Mr Jones, Captain Provand and I vouch for the fact that the negative has not been retouched in any way. It has been examined critically by a number of experts. No one can account for the appearance of the ghostly figure, but it is there clear enough...”
This is the picture.... the facts will follow in the next post!
