In 1917 a 9 year old girl (Frances) and her mother from South Africa came to Bradford, England to stay with Frances' cousin and aunt Polly Wright. The cousin Elsie, 16 years old, and Frances would often play near a stream known as Cottingley Beck, much to the disapproval of their mothers. One day, after Frances had particularly got wet feet, from slipping down stones into the water, her mother demanded to know why they were being so defiant to visit this forbidden place, and Frances replied: they go to see the fairies!
Not believing the story, Elsie later claimed to have seen them and suggested they take her fathers camera to prove it. They were back within half an hour eager for the glass plate to be developed, which the father duly did in his darkroom, after tea. To their amazement the photo showed Frances on the bank with 5 fairies dancing before her. Her father knew she was a talented artist, however, who enjoyed drawing fairies, so dismissed the idea they may be real. Then later Elsie was photographed with what appeared to be a gnome, so her father stopped them taking the camera out.
I like the old fashioned look of this image firstly and it being in black and white helps. I have said that I am a fan of colour photography, but some old pictures like these do look classically good in my opinion. Considering this was taken by a novice on such an old style camera, with glass plates, which was what was used as film in the olden days, and even with the grainy look, its still impressive. The blurry waterfall in the background shows they had the camera on a very low shutter speed and this would help to show the movement of the fairies dancing. We can't see them that clearly, but you get the picture and Frances' facial expression, looking so matter of fact and directly at the camera, is delightful.
Again with an old era look I like this scene. Elsie shows off the old fashioned attire better in this one which adds the brightness and you see her face looks to be smiling. The gnome's shape is realistic with its wings and spritely legs and I am liking the trees included in the background, albeit blurry. In the first image Frances' face is clearer than Elsie's here, but in this image the gnome is slightly clearer than the fairies, whilst the backgrounds are both blurry, showing similar camera settings have been used. Her seat position is good, angled and leaning in to greet the gnome. I find them both very soft looking images, with Frances having a more determined look.
Two years later when the mothers were at a meeting for Theosophy (a philosophy that covered the possibility of nature spirits), they mentioned the photos to the speaker. News from here travelled onto Edward Gardner, a leader in this kind of movement who wrote to Polly Wright stating the photos were the best he had seen of their kind and asking for the glass plates. The pictures were presented to photographic expert Harold Snelling, who was known to undoubtedly spot fakes.
"What Snelling dosen't know about fake photography isn't worth knowing" it was said.
Snelling's report stated that the plate was a single exposure, the dancing fairies were not paper/fabric or painted onto a background, and fascinatingly, that they had moved during exposure.
Gardner showed the photos to his cousin Sir Arthur Conran Doyle, (the author of Sherlock Holmes and The Lost World) who being a member of the spiritualist movement, believed the living could communicate with the dead via psyphics and seances and had Gardner interview the girls.
In 1920 Gardner took a new camera and asked the girls to go out to take more photos of the fairies. 5 pictures were taken in total and a well known clairvoyant went and also claimed he could see the fairies.
The debate went on for years and the world lost track of the girls, then in 1966 The Daily Express did a follow up and found Elsie who told them it may have been a figment of her imagination. She still wasn't giving much away and then in 1971 the BBC in a programme called 'Nationwide' covered the story and Elsie was evasive. The BBC crew concluded the fairies had been paper cut outs that were made to stand up with hair pins.
Finally in 1981/82 both Frances and Elsie were interviewed for an article in 'The Unexplained' where Elsie admitted all 5 had been faked. Frances claimed the first 4 were fake but not the last one, and both ladies concluded they had seen real fairies by the Beck.
The hoax that had carried over years turned out to be the method concluded by the BBC, with the paper cut outs and hat pins. It was said that a pin can actually be seen in the image above on the gnome, but what a fascinating story.
Some people had though Elsie's father had been in on it, but she had denied he knew anything. Elsie herself said she was surprised so many people had been fooled, with what appeared to her, to be a very obvious fake.
I love the story because that is what it was, a children's story taken out of all proportion, that went on for years being believed by so many. I like the images... It was great manipulation in a different way. I too couldn't wait to read all the article to discover the outcome? But then I can be gullible.
This shows how the manipulation of images has been around a very long time, and can be very appealing to a lot of people.
Whilst I don't have any images containing fairies, if I was to manipulate images with them in, I would choose an angle shot of my my 'Autumn Gold' scene for their home, which I have turned to black and white here, because the tree is so old and to compare it to those above. My image is obviously much clearer using years later camera technology, but their scenes are much brighter with the whites of the falls, fairies and the dress, so stand out more. This tree holds 2 imaginative goole like faces upon it in my opinion and I think the black and white actually seems to add a creepy atmosphere. The texture is still apparent in the bark, but I do prefer it in colour, (see a previous blog) because the colours lift it and show more detail.
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