What Brings You Comfort Brings Me Unease

         Thinking back on the creation of spirit photography, I wonder what their intention for it was. One answer would be that these people truly believed in the spirits and their appearance in photos. Another reason would be to provide comfort to those who wish to find a way to lessen the burden of their grief. Honestly though, my bet is that a lot of these people just wanted the money and attention. But that is, of course, how many creations came to be. 

    Could you be a spiritual believer yourself if you were the one manipulating the photos? My answer is probably, the irony is just lost on them. Or maybe they were seeking material comfort themselves. The act of taking someone's dead loved ones and lying about their presence in a photo seems really insensitive to me. But on the other hand, if that photo puts the living at ease and helps their grieving process, who am I to judge what they do. It's a bit creepy, but relatively harmless. Even if these people knew it was fake, perhaps having a recent photo of them together is comforting. It kind of gives me the same feeling as taxidermizing your pets. In my opinion it serves more as a reminder as opposed to a comfort. Could you imagine walking into someone's home to find a picture such as these? Is that not a little unsettling? 

    

    It's upsetting to me how people are making a profit from other peoples devastation and grief. Photographers lied to grieving families just to make a few extra dollars. Perhaps they don't realize how unnerving their practice is, and they're doing it with good intentions. But really, the harm in this is minimal, at most offending others outside of the photo who knew the person who passed on, or giving false hope and ideas to those who do believe in these photos. I hope people were able to find what they needed in their photos, and were brought peace.