MetaChat - Weird.

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15 July 2005

Weird. My mom took photos recently of the house of an old friend of hers who had just died. →[More:]The family wasn't there. She was just looking through them again when she noticed on the side of a picture in the living room, rather large, was the former owner of the house. It is unmistakeably him, and there is nothing to explain it away: you can see the folds in his shirt, the light falling on his face and his hand, and his hair. There's no question that it's a person. I told my mom to look at the negatives to make sure that this picture was indeed part of the same set, to make sure that it wasn't taken at an earlier date, and she hasn't checked back yet. She's certain that they're part of the same set, and the similarity it shares with the other pictures of the set seem to agree.

This is really weird. I'm still kind of skeptical, but there's not much that could explain this at all.

post by: invitapriore at: 23:10 | 26 comments

Can she scan the photo? I love stuff like that. I wouldn't say I'm a believer but I do love this sort of thing.

posted by LeeJay 15 July | 23:26

I'm not either, and I'm searching for an explanation and failing. I'll scan it in a bit.

posted by invitapriore 15 July | 23:35

I'd love to see it.

posted by Frisbee Girl 15 July | 23:38

OMG IT IS TOTALLY A GHOST

Or not.

posted by mr_crash_davis 15 July | 23:40

Here. (252 KB)

I don't know what to say. While the man's son was in the house before my mom took the pictures, he had left, and besides the fact that my mom would have noticed him standing in the camera's view, he has a much different posture/figure than that.

posted by invitapriore 15 July | 23:49

Hey, crash, I didn't make any conclusions, I just don't know of an explanation at the moment. I personally think there is one that isn't outside the realm of normal physics, but it's still weird.

posted by invitapriore 15 July | 23:51

I didn't make any conclusions either. Just trying to cover all the bases.

posted by mr_crash_davis 15 July | 23:54

Funny, it sounded like a snark to me. Carry on.

posted by invitapriore 15 July | 23:54

Huh. I dunno, man. It looks so substantial, it's hard to believe it isn't really a person. Not that I'm issuing a challenge. It's just so...yeah, weird.

posted by Frisbee Girl 15 July | 23:59

The fact that it's a person probably isn't even up for a question...the issue is who it is. Unfortunately the photo is underexposed, so brightening it in photoshop doesn't yield much.

posted by invitapriore 16 July | 00:01

This is a film camera, right? Had she started a new film when taking the photos? Could it be transposed somehow from a previous? I'm not denying it's freaky -- I just like to look for rational explanations (as do we all by the looks of it).

posted by gaspode 16 July | 00:05

Assuming that your mother is a relatively lucid person, it seems odd that someone would be able to sneak into a pic like that. But life's a leetle strange sometimes. Hope you solve the mystery - should be interesting.

posted by Frisbee Girl 16 July | 00:06

gaspode: yes, it was film, and that is always a possibility.

posted by invitapriore 16 July | 00:10

That's very strange. It looks like an old photo. It has the texture of an old photo, if you know what I mean. Not saying it is just that it looks that way. It's all very odd. I hope you guys get to the bottom of it. Or not. Sometimes the mystery is more fun that the answer.

posted by LeeJay 16 July | 00:11

It's a new photo. I brightened it somewhat, which is probably what makes it look old, and all that noise is from my scanner.

posted by invitapriore 16 July | 00:13

On second thought, the previous photo theory, if this photo is indeed in the set, isn't a possibility because it isn't the first one she had taken and there certainly aren't any other photos with him in it.

posted by invitapriore 16 July | 00:20

Weird, but I'm a firm believer in weird. One of my best friend's mothers passed away Wednesday morning. I got an IM from her Thursday, asking if I would go check on her daughter. According the coroner, there's no way she could have sent it, she was found, passed away in her chair in front of her computer...but had obviously passed a many hours before anyone found her and many hours before I got the message...so I'm kind of in that weird space where I'm willing to believe that things are stranger on heaven and earth that are dreamed of in our philosophy.

posted by PsychoKitty 16 July | 00:32

PsychoKitty: Wow. That's...definitely a unique, shaking experience.

posted by invitapriore 16 July | 01:03

It's a distinct possibility. The big question is whether it was a fresh roll or not.

posted by me3dia 16 July | 01:04

The lighting is consistant. This is a photo of a person, not an artifact or a double exposure. There isn't any sort of discontinuity around the edges of the person. It's not a very good image and there is a lot of noise, but it doesn't show any signs of being an artifact or anything.

Everybody else looks totally different from this person, it's not just a mistaken silhouette or such? I'll wait to hear about the negative, just to rule out the chance this isn't an older photo that got shuffled in by mistake (the lighting should give a clue if the pictures were taken at different times) or was already on the roll.

I dunno. Call FATE magazine.

posted by warbaby 16 July | 01:20

I agree with warbaby - this isn't a double exposure. The light from the window would have "cut through" the image of the man if it was giving a more ghostly effect.

I'd have a hard time believing that a guy wasn't actually there and feel your mother must be mistaken in some way.

It might be worth looking at the film and see what continuity there is between the pictures - that way you might be able to work out a time line and see if this photo is not a picture taken at another time or whatever.

posted by dodgygeezer 16 July | 03:23

fuck.
i got the weirdest feeling looking at it
like i did the first time i saw ectoplasm pics from the 1900s

when i'm rested we can talk about the whole resonance recording on film and analogue audio
but for now i'm irked

posted by ethylene 16 July | 03:37

In my first post to MetaChat, I'd just like to say I'm seriously creeped out.
In a good way. :)
Just rambling here, but my impression - that figure seems odd to me, like it's a statue or mannequin or something. Dunno how to explain it. (I'm not implying that your mom faked it. Just reflecting on the "off" feeling I get from the image.)

Also, what's happening with the right arm/hand? It seems to be at a funny angle.

Oh, and psychokitty's anecdote is also amazing. I'm more the artsy-fartsy type than a lot of people here, so I'm much more willing to believe in the supernatural explanation - that she wanted you to make sure her daughter is OK at this terrible time.

There, I just creeped myself out again.

posted by NorthernLite 16 July | 13:20

looks like a person to me. there definitely wasn't anyone else in the house at the time?

posted by amberglow 16 July | 15:22

I'm with ethylene - looking at that photo gives me a really creepy feeling - not something I want to be looking at all alone in my apartment (like I am now). Like the first time I heard ghost voices on tape recordins (Art Bell did a show on them, I should have been asleep in my bed instead of freaking myself out like that).

I also agree with NorthernLite that it kind of looks like a figurine - but an ominous one...

posted by muddgirl 16 July | 15:32

It looks to me like the lamp is on and is casting light on part of the ceiling, the doorknob behind it, the table below it, on the chair or couch to the right of the table, and on the chair between the person and the lamp. It also looks like maybe the person's right hand is resting on the right arm of the chair. Shouldn't the person's right hand be lit by the lamp?

posted by kirkaracha 16 July | 18:04

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