1331
Spiller was elected a Fellow of the Chemical Society.
He joined the Photographic Society of London in 1867,
occupied every offi ce and was President in 1874/75. He
married twice, fi rst to Caroline Ada Pritchard and then
to Emma Davenport. He died in London on November
8, 1921.
See also: Crookes, Sir William; Percy, John, Wet
Collodion Negative; Wet Collodion Positive Processes
(Ambrotype, Pannotype, Relievotypes); Waxed
Paper Negative Processes; and Woodburytype,
Woodburygravure.
Further Reading
The Spiller Collection. 106 letters from Crookes to Spiller in the
period 1850 to 1868 and a few later. Wellcome Institute for
the History of Medicine, London.
Spiller, John and Crookes, William, “On a Method for preserving
the sensitiveness of Collodion Plates for a considerable time.”
Philosophical Magazine vol. 7 (1854): 349–351.
Spiller, John, and Crookes, William, “Further researches on the
methods of preserving the Sensitiveness of Collodion Plates.”
Philosophical Magazine vol. 8 (1854): 111–113.
Spiller, John and Crookes, William “Researches on the Methods
of preserving the Sensitiveness of Collodion Plates.” Philo-
sophical Magazine vol. 11 (1856): 334–339.
Spiller, John “On the action of chloride of gold upon certain salts
of silver.” Photographic Journal vo. l14 (1869): 91, 92.
Spiller, John, “On the gold printing process.” The Year Book
of Photography and Photographic News Almanac, 63, 64,
1883.
SPIRIT, GHOST, AND PSYCHIC
PHOTOGRAPHY
The nineteenth century saw the science and rational-
ism of the previous century emerge as an even stronger
force of change further empowered by the mercantile
thinking of a growing middle class. There was an almost
frenetic quest for knowledge that rode on the surge of
the industrial revolution. The growth of evolutionary
and progressive science such as for example Charles
Darwin’s theory of evolution were perceived to chal-
lenge ideas of established belief systems particularly un-
dermining the fundamentalist structure of 19th century
Christianity. That the origin of mankind may have been
a slow selective development from primates as opposed
to a divine creationist intervention was considered both
blasphemous and, as the argument developed, increas-
ingly calamitous.
With these changes in perception a battle emerged
between the desire or need to continue to believe in the
numinous—and as its antithesis an increasingly empiri-
cal, materialist vision of creation. The middle ground
was indeed growing treacherous underfoot. In his poem
Dover Beach, the 19th century poet Mathew Arnold
described how faith, like the tide, was retreating;
But now I only hear, Its melancholy, long, withdrawing
roar” revealing the, “naked shingles of the world. (Trill-
ing, p.594)
The process of photography is a familiar presence
in contemporary life. The photograph has become
our ubiquitous shadow and like a shadow is with us
in many forms everyday of our lives. Yet when Louis
Jacques Mandé Daguerre’s process of photography was
announced to the world in January 1839 those who ex-
amined the new image making process saw the medium
not only as a scientifi c marvel but also as a miraculous
aid to drawing that would revolutionise recording and
effect an irreversible change in human perception. The
photograph has not only altered the way in which we
interpret the world around us, it has also affected the
manner in which we perceive ourselves (Webster,1).
As a form of representation of external reality the
photograph played a powerful role in helping to estab-
lish concepts of order and interpretations of a shrinking
world. As images were constructed subjectively they
were (often it seems unwittingly) used to confi rm what
was already understood rather than as a cipher of new
knowledge.
The apparent veracity of the photographic image
lent it an unprecedented (and often unquestioned) cred-
ibility. The camera’s ability to accurately reproduce
the world on a two-dimensional surface stood as proof
that the manner in which a subject was recorded was
defi nitive and unquestionable. The photograph was held
in a position of unparalleled importance as a piece of
factual evidence.
As a device of moralising and comparison the photo-
graph was unsurpassed—for as it was so closely linked
to reality belief followed.
When discussing Roland Barthe’s posthumously
published text Camera Lucida John Tagg highlighted
these points:
The camera is an instrument of evidence. Beyond any
encoding of the photograph, there is an existential con-
nection between the ‘necessarily real thing which has
been placed before the lens’ and the photographic image’:
every photograph is somehow co-natural with its referent.’
What the photograph asserts is the overwhelming truth
that ‘the thing has been there’: this was a reality which
once existed, though it is a reality one can no longer
touch. (Tagg, 1)
In the nineteenth century the photograph seemed to
affi rm that science could transcend the confi nes of raw
nature and that through man’s ingenuity science would
be the medium that allowed nature to record itself.
One extreme example of this was the case recorded
in The Photographic Times of 1863 where a murder
victim’s iris was photographed, the negative enlarged
and when viewed under the magnifying glass the