Ghosts Caught on Film 2 follows the same format as Melvyn Willin’s books in the ‘Caught on Film’ series, with a photograph on one page and brief commentary facing it. The earlier books drew on a variety of sources, but Jim Eaton’s is a spin-off from his ghoststudy.com site. The descriptions have also been lifted from it without, apparently, being updated. We are told that Kodak Laboratories planned to analyse the negative of one photo, but the outline of the circumstances in which the picture was taken (which refers to the film used as ‘ISP 200’ rather than ISO) is essentially the same as the web version, where it is dated December 2005. Kodak’s results must be in by now!
Such expertise would have been invaluable as a corrective to the text’s overall superficiality. Eaton’s claim that a photograph was unlikely to have been manipulated as it was taken in the late 1990s “when such technology was less widespread” is naïve. Manipulation is possible in chemical and digital darkrooms. A surprising weakness throughout the book is the lack of technical information. No full EXIF data or similar details are supplied, though these should have been available for many of the photos. Not having them makes evaluation more difficult.
Willin tried to be even-handed when propounding possible explanations, but Eaton tends to err on the side of paranormal explanations. ‘John’ caught what he took to be a ghostly figure on videotape, which meant that “He could at last prove to the world that his suspicions had been confirmed and that he was indeed being haunted.” The ambiguity of many of the pictures undermines Eaton’s claim that “seeing is believing”, while he concedes of others that various explanations are possible. We are told that “Determining a true orb is no easy matter.” A ‘true’ orb (as opposed to the usual dust particles) is a “spirit globule”. It would be valuable to learn how Eaton knows that any of them is more than dust, but he does not present his criteria for distinguishing the two states.
He mentions pareidolia as a possible explanation for some figures but ignores it in others. A supposed image of the Blessed Virgin Mary shows “much detail”, yet it was taken at Christmas when two girls stepped from a warm cabin into the cold. He says the shape could be caused by exhaled breath (he does not mention condensation), but that the degree of detail present in the ‘figure’ argues against this, the implication being that he believes that this is a genuine paranormal object. The detail, though, is in the eye of the beholder.
Despite the title, not all of the photos deal with ghosts. Some are of objects, such as the toasted cheese sandwich with the Virgin’s face (which Eaton says is a case of pareidolia, but how can he be sure?), an alleged ghost in a glass jar, though sadly only the jar is visible, and other similar wonders. Also included is a collection that Eaton feels are probably chance configurations open to misinterpretation, though he rarely closes the door entirely on a paranormal explanation. He does not show where he has drawn the line, and many photographs in other sections could as easily fit in here. He also includes some examples of what he considers fakes, though not all are made with the intention to deceive; some are easily identified errors such as a camera strap or finger in front of the lens, or are artefacts from slow shutter speeds.
In a rare departure from American photographs, one set was taken in the farmhouse of Rose-Mary Gower. (Mike Daniels discussed her resident ‘poltergeist’, Brother Doli, and a rich variety of phenomena in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research in 2002; see also FT’s It Happened To Me Vol. 1.) Here we have an image of ‘Christ’ that appeared on her wall. A few days later, the words ‘Iudaeus’ and ‘Christus’ mysteriously emerged above and below it – though as they are not visible, we only have the householder’s word for it. Another face and the picture of a monk are thrown in for good measure.
Though the book is pleasant, it seems a missed opportunity merely to regurgitate available images when there are archives still keeping their secrets, but which require more effort from the compiler. It also seems lazy to put together a random selection without harder interrogation, failing to ask the sorts of questions that Joe Nickell (Camera Clues, 1994) suggests, such as (where possible) investigating circumstances under which the exposure was made, inspecting the image for tell-tale signs of trickery, examining the original negative (or, these days, the file) and above all being aware of the dangers of self-deception.
It does readers a disservice to select photographs uploaded to a website, reproduce them without making these sorts of checks but taking the stories of the photographers at face value, and being generous in providing a verdict of possible paranormality. Eaton has worked to a formula, but Ghosts Caught on Film 2 has less worthwhile information than the earlier books. Doubtless David & Charles’s marketing department has carefully identified the book’s target audience, and of course there are opportunities for cross-promotion with ghoststudy.com, but deeper analysis would have made it more than a stocking-filler.
Some of the pictures are certainly intriguing, and definitive explanations are not currently available, but Eaton’s reluctance to probe does not help to clear matters up.
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