Spirit photography is a type of photography

Photography

Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

 whose primary attempt is to capture images of ghosts and other spirit

Spirit

The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...

ual entities, especially in ghost hunting

Ghost hunting

Ghost Hunting is the process of investigating locations that are reported to be haunted by ghosts.Typically, a ghost hunting team will attempt to collect evidence claimed to be supportive of paranormal activity...

. It was first used by William H. Mumler

William H. Mumler

William H. Mumler was an American spirit photographer who worked in New York and Boston. His first spirit photograph was a self-portrait which developed to apparently show his deceased cousin...

 in the 1860s. Mumler discovered the technique by accident, after he discovered a second person in a photograph he took of himself, which he found was actually a double exposure

Multiple exposure

In photography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more individual exposures to create a single photograph. The exposure values may or may not be identical to each other.-Overview:...

. Seeing there was a market for it, Mumler started working as a medium

Mediumship

Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...

, taking people's pictures and doctoring the negatives to add lost loved ones into them (mostly using other photographs as basis). Mumler's fraud was discovered after he put identifiable living Boston residents in the photos as spirits.