DAY 268

PHOTOGRAPHIC CURIOSITIES

Urban Legends V

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LIGHTNING

Around the end of the 19^th century, several U.S. newspapers printed stories in which a flash of lightning caused a person’s image to be imprinted on a nearby windowpane, creating an “accidental photograph.”

While anyone remotely familiar with the mechanics of photography could have debunked these accounts, some of the reports stretched logic even further: According to one version, a flash of lightning etched the silhouette of a cherry tree onto the skin of a child’s hip.

At the time, however, the idea of lightning creating an accidental photograph would not have seemed far-fetched for much of the general public. Many viewed it as a semimagical procedure: a bright light would flash, a glass plate was brought into a dark room, and an image mysteriously appeared.

As knowledge of the technical aspects of photography grew and rolls of film replaced glass plates, this story largely disappeared from newspapers by the 1890s. The tale continued to spread as an urban legend well into the 20^th century, however, evolving from a matter-of-fact account of a bizarre “scientific” phenomenon into a morality tale with supernatural overtones. The narrative increasingly relied on a wrongful death: An innocent person dies during a lightning storm, only to reappear on the glass of a window. In many versions, the image reappears even after the glass has been replaced.¹ —DJS