The Martians Have Landed!: A History of Media-Driven Panics and Hoaxes by Robert E. Bartholomew

Author:Robert E. Bartholomew [Bartholomew, Robert E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780786464982
Google: -uDMnQEACAAJ
Goodreads: 13284265
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2011-10-19T00:00:00+00:00

27. Photos of the Gods (Clarke)

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A “miracle photograph” of a statue of Jesus at Holy Love Ministries near Cleveland, Ohio, taken in 2007 by a pilgrim. The photographer, Kim Tran, believes that the mysterious glowing image around the statue reveals the presence of Jesus (collection of Benjamin Radford).

Today “spirit photographs” continue to be published as genuine supernatural images on the Internet, often appearing as orbs or peculiar patches of light. In most cases the photographer claimed to have detected the image only after processing. Where they take on a human form they are frequently identified as figures or faces, or as souls of the dead, spirits, angels, demons and 148

FIVE : IT CAME FROM A FRIEND OF A FRIEND

other supernatural entities. The perception of supernatural images in photos or other visual representations is a type of psychological phenomenon that has become so common it has generated its own technical term, pareidolia, from the Greek word para (“amiss, faulty, wrong”), and eidolon, meaning “image.”

The identification of human faces and figures in natural phenomena such as clouds and rock formations (known as simulacra) is also well known, as is the motivation to attribute catastrophes to evil forces beyond our control. In 2001, for example, many people claimed they could see the face of Satan, complete with eyes, nose and horns, in a photograph showing smoke billowing from the blazing south tower of the World Trade Center following the 9-11 atroc-ities. The picture was taken within 40 minutes of the terrorist attacks by photographer Mark Phillips, who sold it to the Associated Press. He later told the AP that he never noticed a face or any images when he looked at the photos, but after it was published he received hundreds of e- mails from people across the country who said they could clearly identify Satanic features in the smoke.

During the twentieth century a wide range of supernatural or divine phenomena, including angels, Marian apparitions, fairy folk and mysterious creatures such as the Loch Ness Monster, have been perceived in photographs and film footage. For some, photography provided a method to substantiate the reality of the supernatural via the use of an image as “proof,” drawing on the old adage “the camera can’t lie.” A more apt quote when dealing with images such as these is that “every picture tells a story.”

One important type of supernatural or miraculous photograph that bridges the gap between “spirit photography” and more recent examples of supernatural photography are a perplexing set of images that Bob Rickard calls “Photos of the Gods.” In this category there are at least three separate photographs allegedly showing Jesus. All three were widely published and circulated during the twentieth century and have provided the trigger for elaborate stories told by numerous individuals who own copies of the photographs, which seek to explain the origin and meaning of the image. Some of these stories are so widely circulated that newspapers must have played a major role in creating this type of urban legend.1

Perhaps

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