Double, etheric counterpart of the physical body which, when out of coincidence, may temporarily move about in space in comparative freedom and appear in various degrees of density to others. The belief in the existence of the double, or astral body, is age old, its acceptance as a working hypothesis solves many a puzzling problem in psychical research.
Nandor Fodor, Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science 1966
Image from the series Star Shots III – The Go-between
Of what is called spirit photography it is impossible to doubt that such photographs have been honestly produced or obtained by Sir Wm. Crookes, Mr. Traill Taylor, Mr. Glendinning, Rev. Stainton Moses, Madame d’Esperance, and others. They are of three main classes: (1) Portraits of living discarnate beings or spirits; (2) Pictures or effigies or lay figures, often very incomplete, and not necessarily human-like; (3) Reproductions of physical pictures, or other objects.
(D.B. M’Lachlan, in the Journal of the S.P.R., Feb. 1900, p. 185)
Excerpt from: Photographing The Invisible – Practical studies in supernormal photography, script, and other allied phenomena by James Coates, 1911, p. 16
Of what is called paparazzi photography it is impossible to doubt that such photographs have been honestly produced or obtained. They are of three main classes: (1) Portraits of living discarnate beings or spirits; (2) Pictures or effigies or lay figures, often very incomplete, and not necessarily human-like; (3) Reproductions of physical pictures, or other objects.
Below are some of quite a few exposures achieved in my darkroom experiments over the weekend. For now, I will call them The apparitions of Vic.
The subtly exposed apparitions on my baryt paper prints are very difficult to scan, especially without being properly dry pressed. But still – it is possible to discover some flimsy silhouettes dwelling silently in the darkness.
Another spirit celeb’ materialised herself in my darkroom cabinet today. As I mentioned in an earlier post the long announced Star Shots III series is slowly shaping into a rather ghostly series of images through a somehow mysterious agent.
The scan of the original hand proof (b/w baryt paper) below resembles rather strongly a certain Queen B.
For now I cannot reveal how the spirit of living celeb’ star J. exposed herself on my photographic paper (image below), but I do sense quite strongly, that she won’t be the only apparition in my darkroom cabinet.
With the new series, Star Shots III will gradually expose the subtle agent mediating closely between the spirit and the celebrity world.
Another series of experiments using the little water mister. With an exposure time of 1 hour focusing the ever ascending mist into the sunlight, several layers of photographic paper ( I mounted 2 x 4 sheets on top of each other at the back of the pinhole camera), revealed after processing the imagery below.
In my latest series of experiments to reveal the odic negative I used a tiny fog machine or rather a water mister. Through a continuously ascending and descending layer of fog the environment got caught slowly by a medium sized pinhole camera, loaded with photographic paper.
The scanned result of the 30 minutes long odic exposure leaves me with a strange sensation of an infamous 19th century fairytale castle somewhere in the south of germany..
During an exciting week of the infamous Crystal World Open Laboratory hosted by CTM at Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien Katier got invited and inspired to join in with a new series of experiments.
Several 35mm film roll containers were easily converted to pinhole cameras, loaded with a tiny snippet of photographic paper, and finally injected – through the help of several syringes and lots of patience – with differently contaminated liquids that I found in the huge repertoire of chemicals and experiments of the Laboratory.
Deep-frozen over night, the tiny cameras exposed their glacial contents through the spot light of a traditional photographic enlarger for about 10 minutes.
Alum Mordant
Water, contaminated with cpu’s
Ferrous sulphate
Below are the first two subtle fingerprints (at least without any uninvited guests!) of todays 45 minutes condensation experiments described in an earlier post. The first airy exposure faces towards the wall, the second the window front.
The first series of experiments concerned with the revelation of the odic fingerprint uses water condensation. The set up still needs to be refined though, but below you can get a rough insight of the experimental situation: Pinhole Camera, studio light, cooking ring, water, a pan and a very provisional see-through condensation enclosure.
While condensation slowly fills the air with its tiny water drops, emphasized through the studio lighting, the camera captures with an exposure of 45 minutes (still too little time, as the subtle result has shown) the odic fingerprint of the atmosphere.
