William Hope was born in the year 1863. William began his career as a carpenter when he was a young man. Soon William rose to a certain level of fame with the "spiritualist" circles of the day. William had a certain knack for capturing the images of spirits in his photographs. William Hope produced the first paranormal photo in 1905. Soon after this feat, he created a new group which he called the Crewe Circle Spiritualist Group. Soon after, William began to rise to fame as being able to capture the images of loved ones in photos.
This was the age of Spiritualism. Spiritualism was at its height in popularity between 1804 and 1920. Spiritualism was a religious type movement. Its belief system stemmed from the thought that the spirits of the dead existed and could if they so chose to communicate with the living. At its peak in 1897, it is said that more than 8 million followers in both the U.S. and Europe practiced some for of spiritualism. The core of its followers were upper and upper-middle class society. Spiritualism grew and spread for almost 50 years without formal groups or organization. This was made possible through periodicals, tours, and lectures.
In 1905 William Hope produced his first ghostly image. This launched him into fame as something of a medium, not to mention later being called the "Father of Spirit photography". The only problem with all this, William was a total fraud! During the early age of photography, the development process was not commonly known. William used this to his advantage to create his fame and dupe the public.
William used a technique commonly called "double exposure". During this process two different exposures or images are layered on top of each other creating the ghostly image. Once word got out about William Hopes ability to capture the ghostly images of loved ones it gained the attention of the Society for Psychical Research based in the United Kingdom. This group set out to conduct organized research into human experiences the challenged the contemporary model. They were the FIRST group of individuals to research paranormal claims.
In 1920 William Hope ran into his first bit of trouble. Edward Bush laid a trap for William by using a fake name. Edward Bush sent a letter to William Hope with the name of "Wood" and sent a photo of a living person whom he pretended was his dead son. Edward Bush then attended a sitting with William Hope and Hope produced a photo of a spirit which happened to be the same photo that was sent to Hope. The phrase "Dear friend Wood" had appeared on the photo. Researchers with the SPR concluded that there was sufficient evidence to prove William Hope as a fraud.
In 1921 a gentleman who was a close friend of magician Harry Houdini attended a sitting and found the unusually dark conditions of the room were ripe for suspicious activities. He also suspected Hope of switching the photograph plates during these sessions.
In all, the Father of Spirit photography was a fraud. But his actions inspired the possibility of capturing spirits on film. Pushing the field of research into a new direction not thought of before. If it was not for William Hope and his fraudulent photos, we may have never began to think of capturing the spirit world through the lens of a camera.
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