The GHOSTLY PICNIC

This real photo post card is one of my favorite images from my collection. A mistaken double exposure or a purposeful shot? It is a ghostly picnic.

Click on image to see it larger.

I always think of act three from Thorton Wilder's play Our Town when I look at it.

The Stage Manager opens the act with a lengthy monologue emphasizing eternity, and introduces us to the cemetery outside of town and the characters who died in the nine years since Act Two: Mrs Gibbs (pneumonia, while traveling), Wally Webb (burst appendix, while camping), Mrs Soames, and Simon Stimson (suicide by hanging), among others. We meet the undertaker, Joe Stoddard, and a young man Sam Craig who has returned home for his cousin's funeral. We learn that his cousin is Emily, who died giving birth to her and George's second child. The funeral ends and Emily emerges to join the dead. Then Mrs. Gibbs tells her that they must wait and forget the life that came before, but Emily refuses. Despite the warnings of Simon, Mrs. Soames, and Mrs. Gibbs, Emily decides to return to Earth to re-live just one day, her 12th birthday. She finally finds it too painful, and realizes just how much life should be valued, "every, every minute." Poignantly, she asks the Stage Manager whether anyone realizes life while they live it, and is told, "No. The saints and poets, maybe – they do some." She then returns to her grave, beside Mrs. Gibbs, watching impassively as George kneels weeping at her graveside. The Stage Manager concludes the play, reflecting on the probable lack of life beyond Earth, and wishes the audience a good night. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

Did these young ladies and gentlemen mysteriously disappear following their gathering? Was there an accident? Perhaps a drowning from an overturned boat on the nearby lake? A vehicle overturned killing all aboard? Did they forever haunt the place where they last knew happiness together? We'll never know, but the image is certainly open to interpretation.

This is my Sepia Saturday contribution for the week.

The LOST "ART" of Double Exposures: George and Martha with Guests

My best friend submitted this one. President George Washington with his wife Martha...and some serious party people.


Click on image to see it larger.

The LOST "ART" of Double Exposures: More Ghosts

Did they love their vacations at the old log cabin so much that they haunted it for years to come?



Click on "Double Exposure" in the labels to see more.

More of the LOST "ART" of the Double Exposure

I found a site last night that purported to explain how to create double exposures. It was utter nonsense. It had nothing to do with a real double exposure and was nothing more than explaining how to do layers using photo editing software. Though many of the images were striking, they weren't double exposures. This sits in the craw of old timers like me. Don't use old terminology to explain something you're doing today that has no similar reference point.

Generally a real double exposure was an accident, but not always. Some people did successfully find ways to make film not advance or go back so that they could create a double exposure. They were still at the mercy of the camera and had no idea what they would get until they processed the negative and print.

double exposure  noun      the repeated exposure of a photographic plate or film to light, often producing ghost images.

• the photograph that results from such exposure.

Obviously this is not the same as placing layer after layer of images into one document in Photoshop where you're in control every step of the way.

Before computers you could play in the darkroom with multiple negs and create all sorts of wonderful images. I did it myself and recall an especially odd print of Mick Jagger with a fern sticking out of his nose. Oh to still have that odd print. And no, it wasn't a real photo of Mick. It was a shot I'd taken of an album cover and some tropical ferns in the backyard. I'm sure it was funnier at the time, thanks to the overwhelming smell of developing chemicals, than it would ever be if I saw it today. Best to keep it as a vague memory.

I continue to search for double exposures, but the pickin's now are pretty slim. I believe most people tossed them with disgust when they got their prints.

One of the joys in this category are ghost people. Don't believe in ghosts? Really? What more proof do you need?



This is the happiest group of ghosts I've ever seen. A ghosts day out at the lake. I believe they might have been institutionalized ghosts.

Have some double exposures you'd like to share or links to images? Let me know and I'll include them in this post. It's a category!

Here are a couple links to images I've posted in the past, including yesterdays post:

The LOST "ART" of the Double Exposure
DOUBLE EXPOSURE Rosa and Rodrique
CATEGORY and SUBCATEGORIES GALORE!

Here's a grouping at another site:
House of Mirth

And here are two submitted by online friends:

From Nancy at Nancy's Family History Blog

From Jim at DullToolDimBulb.