“Proof of life after death,” muses Roz Leibowitz of her collection of odd exposures. “Or at least bad photography. I prefer to believe in the former.” The wrong shots are often the best shots, the pictures that resonate and haunt. In the gallery below we can see people seemingly struck by beams of light. The image takes on an otherworldliness, the ethereal and strange captured on camera as if at once we’re seeing the now blended with echoes of memory and emotion. We’ve seen similar ghosts in the machine in William Hope’s spirit photographs. But they were frauds – elaborate parlour tricks to con and comfort. These pictures are shorn of guile and contrivance. They just are, inviting the viewer to think of a story.
A processing error gives this snapshot added poignancy.
On the back: Feb. 17 1948
A cute snapshot. On the back:
Sept 21 1947 Louise in the den at 37 Marin? Heights 1 yr.
A badly exposed snapshot that is creepy and kind of wonderful because of it. I also like it placed next to the laundry photo.
A nice double exposure from the flea market. On the back — Steve 1952
On the back:
Who turned out the lights? 1950
The pleasures of snapshot-hunting: finding these odd gems! I love the simplicity of the little house with the surprise of the “meteor”. Proof they have landed. Or at least tried to….
When aliens attack
another vintage double exposure.
Dated on back: April 26, 1945.
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