Photography and a Specter

During the mid 19th-century, photographers used their cameras to capture both reality and the paranormal world. From the very beginning, photographers quickly  figured out what "special effects" their cameras were capable of producing. In 1863, a french photgrapher named Eugene Thiebault shot a photograph for Henri Robin, a french illusionist, as an advertisement for the magician's upcoming show. The photograph, titled "Henri Robin and a Specter", depicts Robin being frightened from behind by a ghostly skeleton draped in a long cloak. Thiebault created the illusion by intentionally double-exposing the film.On the desk to the right of Robin in the photograph is an empty hourglass, intended by Thiebault to subtly suggest that, with the presence of the ghost, Robin's time on Earth had run out.