what do you make of this strange photo ?

[romeolovedjulliet]

took me 20 mins to work it out

It just looks like the back of a chair to me.

See, you can make out more of the chair material where I've marked. It's the same.

Likely neither photoshopped in nor an illusion. Someone has been manually removed from the photo. You can see that the outside edge of the woman with the hand on her shoulder has been painted in. Some photographers were better than others at doctoring pictures. This was clearly one of the less skilled.

My mum has several old photos a bit like this, where the photographer manually added people. Her parents' and some of their siblings emigrated in the early years of the 20th century. They would send home studio portraits which would be incorporated into group portraits of their families that had stayed behind, and then copies were sent out to the emigrated families. Sometimes the photographer would erase bits that couldn't be incorporated into the group portrait, or add bits that were missing, particularly when head shots had been sent.

Blown up a bit, it still looks more like a hand to me.

Definitely a hand...you can see the thumbnail... very unsettling pic though, even before the photoshopped/removed person.
They look quite 'tough' girls..Eg, having to cope with a far from easy life.
The way their arms are folded in a businesslike manner makes them look like workers rather than school students?

It's weird - it looks like a hand but, to me, the thumb doesn't fit quite right, it's too light and out of place-looking. So I'd go with some kind of vintage or modern photoshopping, personally. Or the double exposure thing and someone's just moved, or moved out of shot after straightening that woman's top.

I can't make it look like fabric even when I squint!

Some of the old American Hallowe'en home made costumes were terrifying.
A chap I emailed almost daily til his untimely passing had a collection of unsettling images. ''Steve Chasmar''. Worth looking online to see if any are posted still.

@oakleaffy

Definitely a hand...you can see the thumbnail... very unsettling pic though, even before the photoshopped/removed person. They look quite 'tough' girls..Eg, having to cope with a far from easy life. The way their arms are folded in a businesslike manner makes them look like workers rather than school students?

They're mill workers, and they did have a reputation for being tough, (as a result of having a tough life, and doing the sort of work that 'respectable' families wouldn't have allowed their daughters to do), to the extent that 'millie' is still used as a derogatory term in Belfast today.

@caughtalightsneeze
Ah that makes sense. They look like they have quite hard lives..but had they been posed with relaxed arms, they might look more like Schoolgirls.
It is a tragedy that 'back in the day' young people {boys & girls} had to work at long hard jobs with zero ''health and safety in workplace''
I wonder if the photographer made them pose with their arms folded like that, to emphasise the fact they were Workers?
A relative of Stepmum left school to be a hod carrier at age 9.... he remained small, even an an elderly man, and his mum wept as she sent him off to work on his first day.

Re 'Millie' being derogatory...That is very unjust.
Was it flax mills?

What about it?

Just googled...Here is more about the pic:

www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/history/ghostly-object-hiding-photo-really-11380530

I have never seen this before, but it really creeped me out because these three all look really similar to myself. The one in the middle especially. Weird

@oakleaffy

Re 'Millie' being derogatory...That is very unjust. Was it flax mills?

Yes, linen mills

Surely its entirely likely that siblings all went to work in the same place. Hence the fact some of them look so similar?

The photo may have been cropped. Or in Victorian Times you had to stand still for a long time to have your photo taken. Perhaps the owner of the hand moved out of frame but her hand had already been photographed.

It is a tragedy that 'back in the day' young people {boys & girls} had to work at long hard jobs with zero ''health and safety in workplace''

Umm, this still happens today.

Just googled Steve Chasmar, blimey, very "Peculiar Children" images.

I should be working now

It does look like a hand to me, but I'd like to know the reason for the blurring of the dress behind her other shoulder.

If you look at the link in @oakleaffy 's post above, you'll see the photo clearer and it is definitely a hand - whoever said chair needs to get their eyes tested.

@Smallsteps88

It is a tragedy that 'back in the day' young people {boys & girls} had to work at long hard jobs with zero ''health and safety in workplace''

Umm, this still happens today.

Not in Belfast or E.U , and this is what was being talked about

Obviously it does in other Countries especially Developing ones.

@Iamnotminterested

Just googled Steve Chasmar, blimey, very "Peculiar Children" images.

I should be working now

They are really creepy...Who needs an Asda {other outlets are available} Hallowee'n facemask when such terrifying ones were home made in the past......

And this kid...

This Family... Would be nightmarish to pop by on 31st Oct...

Not in Belfast or E.U , and this is what was being talked about

That wasn’t at all clear or obvious.