www.shropshirestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/The-Ghost-in-Wem-Town-Hall.jpg One of Shropshire’s most sensational mysteries – the spooky riddle of “The Wem ghost” – may at last have been solved by eagle-eyed Shropshire Star reader Brian Lear. Brian spotted an eerie similarity between a girl standing in the street in a 1922 photo of Wem and the young girl whose fuzzy image was famously captured amid the flames as Wem Town Hall burned down in 1995. That photograph taken by local amateur photographer Tony O’Rahilly created international headlines and sparked the legend of “The Wem Ghost”. There was speculation that the girl was 14-year-old Jane Churm, who accidentally started the disastrous great fire of Wem in 1677 and was reputed to be haunting the town hall. Wem folk enthusiastically embraced the story which put their town under the spotlight. A sign on the outskirts had a makeshift alteration to read “Ghost Town”, experts in paranormal activity visited, and there was even a scroll and a plaque to mark where the ghost was spotted. But when Brian, from Shrewsbury, looked at a photo of Wem — a postcard franked in 1922 — in our Pictures From The Past slot the other day, his eye was drawn to a little girl standing in a doorway. “I was intrigued to find that she bore a striking likeness to the little girl featured as the ‘Wem ghost’,” he said. “Her dress and headgear appear to be identical.” So we have blown up detail from that picture to compare with the “Wem ghost”. And, by jove, he’s right! Look at the pictures and make your own minds up. Photographer Tony O’Rahilly, who died in 2005, said at the time that he had discovered the ghost image when developing his snaps of the town hall fire. Some time later the photo was examined by experts from the National Museum of Photography, who concluded it was a fake. But others were certain it was genuine. 'Ghost': Girl in postcard: Real or fake? They seem identical when overlaid: www.kuxas.com/94/spooky-case-of-the-wem-ghost.html
It wouldn't be hard to take the image of the girl in the postcard and use it to produce the 'ghost' picture via a bit of darkroom trickery. (Probably a darn sight easier than trying to do it using something like Photoshop, I'd guess.) PS: there's no such thing as ghosts.
I don't know if there are ghost or not, and I don’t know if that photo is genuine or not; however, I can say that I don’t buy into either the picture, or the concept of ghosts.
So the 'ghost' decided to spend eternity dressed exactly the same and pose in exactly the same position as when she was photographed in 1922? Must have LOVED that photo. Agreed, there are no such things as ghosts. At least in the spirit-of-a-dead-person way.
Yes the photo could be faked either way rather readily. Both in a traditional dark room and in a software like Photoshop or something similar. Hmm... in terms of the concepts of what ghosts actually are... the first part of your post is somewhat in line with what writer/director Guillermo del Toro (Cronos/Hellboy/Pan's Labrynth) has put forth.. if I recall the concept of what a ghost is or does was touched on his film 'The Devils Backbone'. Not so much as a belief... but rather as a conceptual look at ghosts. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHm_Me0CDC0"]The Devil's Backbone - trailer - YouTube[/ame] The text might give you some idea of how he's going about the concept. One of his big influences was the famous horror writer H.P. Lovecraft... so perhaps this theme or concept is something that has been around for a very very long time. Very interesting stuff. While I don't think that ghosts exist in the whole Casper the Friendly Ghost sense... I think that when we start to discount the possibility of there being something out there that we can't quite explain or perhaps at times can't even accept. Ghosts and the like are very much part and parcel with the human psyche. Anywho... my 2 cents.
Anyone can do that in 10 minutes. Scan in old photo. Click on scanned image. Ctrl A. Ctrl C. Click on modern photo. Ctrl V. Ctrl T. Adjust size. Change layer style to "multiply". Adjust transparency. Click on the eraser tool. Erase the bits you don't want. Save the image as "Clearly_a_fake_ghost.jpg".
