My Adventure in Spirit Photography

Landscape photography, portrait photography, street photography, macro photography, spirit photography… Spirit photography?!

Yes, some folks claim their cameras can take pictures of ghosts and other apparitions. Most images are fake or have natural explanations. Although I’m skeptical, I once attempted this type of photography with the help of a self-described ghost hunter.

Result: nothing. I think. But the hunt had potential, because the location has a genuinely mysterious history.

Cleveland’s Most Haunted House

My adventure began in January 1980 when I was a magazine writer and amateur photographer in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. A stranger appeared at our offices and showed me snapshots that he claimed were supernatural images. He wasn’t a photographer, though. To my experienced eyes, they could be explained by natural means. Still, I was intrigued, because he was the former owner of a decrepit old mansion reputed to be Cleveland’s most haunted house: Franklin Castle.

Franklin Castle isn’t really a castle. Americans sometimes bestow this honorific on mansions whose turrets and other features resemble a castle’s. In 1982, the U.S. government added Franklin Castle to the National Registry of Historic Places. It was built in 1881 by Cleveland businessman Hannes Tiedemann. Soon afterward, his mother and four of his children died. When his wife Louise died in 1895 at age 57, Tiedemann sold the house. By 1908 he was dead, too, leaving no heirs.

The house changed hands several times in subsequent years and attracted strange rumors. Did the ghosts of the Tiedemann family haunt the old mansion? Did bootleggers operate there during Prohibition? Was it once a secret meeting place for American Nazis? Was treasure buried in the backyard? Were human bones found behind a wall? Did someone commit suicide near the ballroom? Were the current tenants reporting odd experiences?

All these rumors and more came to my attention when the former owner showed me his snapshots of mysterious apparitions. I tried to explain them away. Blood dripping from a ceiling? Nope, it looked like a red pull-cord hanging from a ceiling light. An apparition hovering over a fireplace? Nope, it looked like a camera-flash reflection from an oval mirror. And so on…

But when he offered to introduce me to a woman who claimed to sense paranormal activity, I eagerly accepted. She was the ghost hunter who guided my photographic tour on that cold dark night in January 1980.

I brought two 35mm SLRs: a Canon TLb with a Canon FD 28mm f/3.5 lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X film; and a Canon TX with a third-party 18mm lens, loaded with Kodak High-Speed Infrared film. The infrared roll was my attempt to record supernatural phenomena outside the spectrum of normal human vision. Each camera also mounted an electronic flash. I developed the film myself, using Kodak HC-110 (Dilution B) for the Tri-X and Edwal FG7 for the infrared. I digitized the negatives in 2023.

The Ghost Hunt

We started our ghost hunt in the dank basement and worked our way upward to the top (fourth) floor, a ballroom. Whenever my guide sensed something unusual and pointed, I quickly shot a picture. She appears in some photos. (Alas, I cannot remember her name.) At that time, the large house had been crudely divided into rented apartments. She lived with her husband in one of them.

Much of the house was a wreck. After a remodeling project had discovered bones hidden behind a wall, previous owners and treasure hunters tore the place apart and dug holes in the backyard, looking for more bones and hidden valuables. Nothing much was found. The apartments were salvaged from the intact rooms.

Do my photos reveal any supernatural phenomena? Not that I can see. Some appear to have translucent ropelike streaks, but I believe they are reflections or agitation defects from the film developer. Could they be ghostly images of supernatural ectoplasm? Who knows! Whatever, I’m posting some of my photos here (and more on my personal website, The Electric Brain) because people are fascinated by Franklin Castle — and because no one else has pictures like these.

Tours of Franklin Castle are available. Link to the official website: The Franklin Castle (I’m not associated with Franklin Castle or its current owner.)

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