Spirit Photos Collage Sheet
These free collage sheets are made up of so-called “spirit” photos from the 19th century. There are likely no actual ghosts in the photographs. They were made using a double exposure technique. In the early days of photography, it was a technical concept few knew about outside of photographers, so it fooled a lot of people. Think of it as a very early “special effect.”
Scroll down, and you’ll find two different collage sheets. The first sheet is made up of photos that were used in a stereoscope. A device with which users would look at separate left-eye and right-eye views of the same image, creating the visual effect of a single three-dimensional image. Many of those include captions describing the scene depicted.
If you like these, you may also want to check out this sheet of Vintage Portraits or these Daguerreotype Portraits. I also have a growing selection of Halloween collage sheets you might want to take a look at.
19th-century spirit photos were a type of photographic hoax or manipulation that gained popularity during the Victorian era, particularly in the latter half of the 1800s. These photos purported to depict supernatural or paranormal phenomena, specifically images of ghosts or spirits.
The most common method used to create these spirit photos was double exposure. This technique involved taking two separate photographs on the same negative or glass plate, allowing for the superimposition of two images onto a single print. One exposure would capture the intended scene or subject, while the other would capture a ghostly figure or transparent form. When the two exposures were combined during the development process, it created the illusion of a spirit or ghost appearing alongside living individuals.
Photographers and mediums often presented these spirit photos as genuine evidence of communication with the spirit world, capitalizing on the widespread interest in spiritualism and the afterlife during that time. Spiritualism was a popular belief system that centered around the idea of communicating with the spirits of the deceased through mediums, séances, and other paranormal practices.
As photographic technology advanced and skepticism grew, many of these spirit photos were eventually exposed as hoaxes or products of deception. The development of more sophisticated photographic techniques and an understanding of how double exposure worked led to a decline in the belief in the authenticity of such images.
Use these in art journaling, junk journaling, bullet journaling, collage, artist trading cards (ATCs), scrapbooking and other mixed media artwork and crafts.
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You may also enjoy these free collage sheets.
Terms of use:
Free to use for personal or commercial projects. You may print the collage sheets as many times as you wish for your personal crafts or in your projects to sell, including: art journals, scrapbooks, junk journals, collage art, etc. You may not redistribute or sell the collage sheets “as is" in either print or digital form.
If you wish to share the files on your own website, please do not make the files available for download directly from your site. Instead, include an image with a link back to this site.
To the best of my knowledge, these are all royalty free images that are in the Public Domain in the US. However, you should always do your own research if you plan to use them commercially.
