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DAY 268 | PHOTOGRAPHIC CURIOSITIES |
Urban Legends V
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LIGHTNING
Around the end of the 19th 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 ...
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