Is it Possible to Photograph the Paranormal?

There's a question I'd like to raise, partly triggered by a current thread, Evidence of "time travel"? aka Time Slips, though it isn't exclusive to the realm of time-slips.

The question is this:
is it even possible to photograph the paranormal?

There are a number of reasons why I ask. Perhaps first is that I have a background in photography, it's something I've been doing since childhood, and perhaps lack of funds to buy shiny new toys meant instead I had to read about them. I used to read pretty much anything I could get my hands on regarding the art and science of photography. Later I did a college course on the subject, perhaps aiming to follow it as a career path, though I ended up working in a different area. At any rate I think I have at least a basic grounding in the subject by now.

However, I've yet to see a really convincing photograph of say a ghostly or other-worldly encounter. Also, most such photos involve retrospective 'discovery', that is they don't represent the result of someone seeing a ghost, and then photographing it. On the contrary, it seems either someone sees a ghost, but is unable to photograph it. Or conversely, no-one sees or is aware of anything unusual but afterwards a photo may look a bit odd, to some people.

On the other side of the issue, I remember visiting some ancient site in England, and was sitting quietly in the sunshine, reading a book, At some point I looked up and saw a procession of figures walking solemnly across the field in front of me. What I saw was quite likely appropriate for the original use of the site, some 4000 or so years earlier. Now I knew very well that what I was seeing wasn't seen with the eyes, it had somehow entered my mind but wouldn't be visible to other people, unless they were sharing my mental state at that time. This reminds me of say death-bed visions or shared-death experiences, where people may very clearly see and experience something, perhaps even enter a conversation with such a visitation. But it isn't something which could be photographed, it is seen with the mind. That's not to say it is made-up. There are shared experiences where more than one person witnesses the same events.

I'm left wondering whether photography has any role at all to play, except perhaps in recording the scene, the location where something occurred.  But not the event itself.

Thoughts?

It's an interesting topic.  When I was a teenager I used to believe all the ghost photos I saw but then found out later how they were most likely faked.  Now that we are in the age of digital, it's hard to trust anything you see in a photo or video.  One thing I noticed is that when genuine paranormal investigators take equipment to record stuff, the one thing they almost never capture is something visible.  Even the audible stuff is kind of not right somehow although one is forced to ask "so how did it happen and where did it come from?"  

It might be worth enquiring of these guys: http://www.assap.ac.uk/

[Ninshub]

Of course you can photograph or film stuff like PK-poltergeist activity.

Of course you can photograph or film stuff like PK-poltergeist activity.

Yes.

Some time ago there was a thread showing some photos taken by Danish photographer Sven Turck. I didn't see anything obviously flawed about the pictures, and if they were of some more everyday activity such as sports or dancing, they would just be accepted. It was only the nature of the subject - levitating tables and apparently people too which raised questions. Of course there would always be room for some kind of fraud, but that really applies to any event, whether paranormal or not. Actually I did have another concern. The photos were of relatively small dimensions and correspondingly low resolution. The low resolution does provide a means (potentially) to disguise where a picture has been edited or manipulated. By contrast, there is a large online archive of very high resolution images by the same photographer, covering people and places.

Then there are the well-known Cottingley Fairies. Now disclosed as a hoax, the pictures do look fake. But how they were perceived before the deception was revealed is hard to grasp, once one knows how it is done, its harder to put oneself in the shoes of earlier viewers and see through their eyes. Though I should add of course that is a different type of occurence, it isn't PK or poltergeist type activity.

There's a question I'd like to raise, partly triggered by a current thread, Evidence of "time travel"? aka Time Slips, though it isn't exclusive to the realm of time-slips.

The question is this:
is it even possible to photograph the paranormal?

There are a number of reasons why I ask. Perhaps first is that I have a background in photography, it's something I've been doing since childhood, and perhaps lack of funds to buy shiny new toys meant instead I had to read about them. I used to read pretty much anything I could get my hands on regarding the art and science of photography. Later I did a college course on the subject, perhaps aiming to follow it as a career path, though I ended up working in a different area. At any rate I think I have at least a basic grounding in the subject by now.

However, I've yet to see a really convincing photograph of say a ghostly or other-worldly encounter. Also, most such photos involve retrospective 'discovery', that is they don't represent the result of someone seeing a ghost, and then photographing it. On the contrary, it seems either someone sees a ghost, but is unable to photograph it. Or conversely, no-one sees or is aware of anything unusual but afterwards a photo may look a bit odd, to some people.

On the other side of the issue, I remember visiting some ancient site in England, and was sitting quietly in the sunshine, reading a book, At some point I looked up and saw a procession of figures walking solemnly across the field in front of me. What I saw was quite likely appropriate for the original use of the site, some 4000 or so years earlier. Now I knew very well that what I was seeing wasn't seen with the eyes, it had somehow entered my mind but wouldn't be visible to other people, unless they were sharing my mental state at that time. This reminds me of say death-bed visions or shared-death experiences, where people may very clearly see and experience something, perhaps even enter a conversation with such a visitation. But it isn't something which could be photographed, it is seen with the mind. That's not to say it is made-up. There are shared experiences where more than one person witnesses the same events.

I'm left wondering whether photography has any role at all to play, except perhaps in recording the scene, the location where something occurred.  But not the event itself.

Thoughts?

I think it's hugely unlikely that we could photograph event's which are dislocated in space-time with a camera (perhaps some quantum device might be invented in the future), these experiences do appear to be hallucinations (that's not an explanation by the way!). The two British couples who claimed to have had a famous time slip experience at a hotel in France remembered taking photographs, but after developing the films, the photo's they remembered taking did not exist.

Not sure about poltergeist activity. I asked a CofE minister I was on holiday with about any strange occurrences. He gave me one example that happened to one of his colleagues (not him). After a service, some members of his colleagues congregation came up to the minister and expressed their dissatisfaction with what he had said during the service. The minister couldn't understand this, because he was sure he had said nothing that could cause such an outcry amongst his congregation. So he read out-loud what he had said once again to those gathered around him, and they were shocked once again. The Minister couldn't understand why there was such an outcry. Eventually in an effort to placate them, he gave them his written text to read for themselves, when they read his speech in black and white, none of them found any problems with it. Apparently, the congregation later identified one woman from amongst themselves who was somehow affecting how some members of the congregation were understanding (hearing) what the minister was saying. That story has often felt poltergeist-like to me... as if one person's presence can sometimes twist the everyday experiences of some of those around them, but the everyday facts can remain the same. I can't speak as to the accuracy of the story, it was just what I was told.

"I'm left wondering whether photography has any role at all to play, except perhaps in recording the scene, the location where something occurred.  But not the event itself."

I think it may just possibly have a role but that would depend on so many variables that to actually catch a picture..and prove that it is a ghost is very unlikely. My friend saw his dead mother sitting beside him in his vehicle, I'm quite satisfied about that. Whether or not he could have taken a photo is anyone's guess.