Photo 1 Fake Ghost Photography

2/22/2017

Last week, Photo 1 students in Ms. Deal-McEver’s class did a day of "fake ghost photography" to explore the greater concept of constructed images. In their unit on constructed images, or completely staged photos, they are learning about how easy it is to fabricate meaning in images. They have looked at internet images from “proof of ghosts” websites and figured out how most of the images were actually made.

While taking fake ghost photography, students were inspired by the work of Laura Larson, a professor at Ohio University who has a series of fake ghost photos. To create the “ghost” images, students put their cameras on tripods and used long exposures. To create see-through images, the subject was only present for part of the time the image was being created. The blurred images were created by moving the subject during the long exposure. Some students also played with “light painting” by moving around flash flights during the long exposures.

AnnaBelle Cash, a Grade 10 Photo 1 student who is the artist of the featured photo above, said that this project was “all about being creative.” For her, it was experimentation that led to a strong photo. She started experimenting with the use of other students’ flashes to help light her own photo. The image that resulted captures multiple flashes from a student’s camera as well as light from another student’s phone camera. The blurriness and movement was a result of the timing of different flashes, as well as a long-exposure shot.

To see more student photos from this project, take a look at the slideshow below.

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