Iconic image from the history of photography



In 1917, Frances Griffiths returned home with wet feet after playing by the stream with her cousin Elsie Wright. In trouble again after being told repeatedly not to play there, her excuse for being near the stream started an illusion that would last for over 70 years - she told her mother she went to see the fairies.

 

They borrowed a camera, and returned it to Elsie's father for him to develop, after the initial surprise, Mr. Wright dismissed the fairies as cardboard cutouts. He knew his daughter was a talented artist who enjoyed drawing fairy figures. Eventually Mr. Wright stopped loaning his camera to his daughter and niece after they took another photo with Elsie posed next to what appeared to be a gnome.

 

The whole matter might have stayed a private affair, but in 1919 the mothers attended a philosophy meeting that included in its teaching the possibility of nature spirits. After the meeting was over the women approached the speaker about the pictures. This brought the photographs to the

 

Through word of mouth the pictures came to the attention of Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes, who was also a member of the Spiritualist movement and believed that the living could communicate with the dead through psychics and seances. He was very open to the idea of fairies and welcomed the photos as evidence of a world beyond physical reality. Conan Doyle was unable to travel to interview the family, and instructed Mr Gardner to go in his place. 

After talking to the girls, Gardner reported to Conan Doyle that the girls were telling the truth. Conan Doyle then used the pictures in a story he was writing about fairies for The Strand magazine and suggested that more photographs be taken.

 

For many years the argument continued to speculate as to whether the girls had actually captured fairies on film.

 

Finally in 1981 and 1982 in an interview, Frances and Elsie admitted that the photographs had been faked.  Both ladies contended they had indeed seen real fairies near the stream.

 

Whether seen or not, the photographs have been used to communicate something not actually present at the time, and shoes that photo manipulation is not a new or digital invention.

The thought that the camera never lies has never truly been the case and photography still offers a medium by which to deceive or trick the viewer.

Dark room introduction - Pictograms

A pictogram, in it's literal sense is a picture which conveys a meaning through it's resemblance in an image. In terms of photography, they are very simple images where objects are placed directly on light sensitive paper and exposed and then developed.

The object which I had brought in for the day was not very transparent, and as light passes through the object to create varying tomes, I decided it would not be a good object to try my first pictogram with, and borrowed some feathers for session.

The dark room, has double doors, so that people can leave and enter without contaminating the paper or exposing film to light. It is also equipped with a red light, which is often referred to as a safe light, as well as sinks for developing.
It takes a few moments to get used to the red light, so I take time to adjust before starting work.

When in the dark room, health and safety should be adhered to as chemicals can be harmful to work with.

The dry side of the dark room should be kept bone dry at all times and towels are available to dry hands before moving into the dry side.

Equipment on the dry side included the enlarger. The negative is placed on the enlarger tray and the appropriate height and aperture are chosen. The feathers were then placed on the light sensitive paper and the exposure light turned on for the required period (which is a bit of trial and error dependant on the transparency of the items, in my case it was less than 10 seconds)

Enlarger

The paper is then taken to the wet side to be developed. Whilst film follows a different exposure process, for this pictogram the paper was placed in the developer for 1 minute, stop for 30 seconds and fixer for 2 minutes using a light rocking movement to ensure that the chemicals are agitated and evenly dispersed across the surface of the paper. Once developed it is then placed in a rinse on continually refreshing water for at least 20 minutes before placing on the rack to dry.
Tongues are used to place the paper in the trays of chemicals, and care should be taken to avoid any cross contamination.

Once developed, and assuming everyone else in the dark room has finished working with light sensitive materials, the white light can be switched on.

Here are the images I created.

I enjoyed the dark room work immensely, and really look forward to learning how to develop film in there, this will also enable me to shoot more in film and possibly experiment with medium/large format camera's.