Eerie Photos Still Discussed Decades Later
Lady And Her Horse On A Snowy Day In 1899
What is it about haunting photos from the past that makes them so impossible to forget? Is it their dreamlike quality? Or is it the way in which they show a past that we don't see in history books? These rare photos from the past show not only a different time and place, but a different kind of world all together.
On first glance these chilling photos seem otherworldly, but look closer... Not only will you find an enchanting artistry in the following images but photos that will send tingles up your spine.
Millions, maybe even billions of photos are taken every day. However, the photos that manage to stick in our minds years later have an inherently hypnagogic quality. They show the way that the world really was in the past. Don't be afraid... look deeply and take a trip to the past.
This image of a woman chasing her horse through the snow is chilling, but not just because of the clearly frigid temperatures. Felix Thiollier captured a moment of unease and desire in this strange photo. Who is this woman, and why is she running through the snow with her horse?
It's likely that she's just training her horse, but the snow in this photo adds to its dream-like structure. The snapshot has the look of something that you would see moments before you wake up and shake the sleep from your eyes. It's a moment in time lost in a fog, no wonder it's so effecting to viewers.
Occasion for Diriment, 1962
Taken in 1962, this photo by Ralph Eugene Meatyard is the work of a man who gave up his career to take photos. He spent much of his life working as an optician in Lexington, Kentucky, but gave it all up to focus on his art. Much of his work has the nightmare quality that you can see in this photo.
Meatyard was known for arranging his family members alongside props like masks and dolls to create chilling images. Much of Meatyard's work is meant to be taken as comedy, but without context his photos are straight up nightmare fuel. That's why his images remain so startling to this day.
Jimmy “One Eye” Collins After Arraignment, 1946
This startling photo of a small time criminal is startling in its focus on the subject. Even after an arraignment, surrounded by police, it's hard to fathom taking a photo of someone nicknamed "One Eye" at such a close proximity. At a moment like this anything could happen.
Crime photography like the stark black and white snapshot here lets the viewer into the unseen places of the underworld. Not only does it allows the viewer to get close to the action without actually getting hurt, but it shows the real figures that keep the criminal underworld running. It takes a brave photographer to get so close to someone like this and capture them in such perfect focus.
Ducks gather as a boy watches from a distance
Imagine walking up on a flock of ducks like this. They're gathered together on leaf covered ground squawking and quacking about who knows what, do you interrupt them? Or do you just watch from a safe distance to keep from disturbing their conversation?
Félix Thiollier only started working as a photographer in his mid-30s, but his style was in place from earliest photos. Each of his snapshots feels like it's floating, as if it's pulled from the outer most reaches of memory. It's as if he had a direct line to his artistry, what a beautiful and chilling gift.
Pamplona, Spain—Carnival, 1972
Following his escape from Czechoslovakia in 1970 after publishing photos of the Soviet invasion of Prague, Josef Koudelka set out on a life long adventure to photograph the world. His photos were both haunting and poignant. They show the way in which real life can resemble a dream when you look at it the right way.
Carnival may be a normal celebration to the people of Spain, but when viewed through Koudelka's lens it becomes something far more surreal. This image of children playing in the brick streets as men wearing giant heads march around them is chilling in spite of the laughing faces all around. Is it real or is it something else?
An early hipster with a cinched waist poses in front of the Eifel Tower
If you're having trouble comprehending the chilling image in front of you, don't worry you're not alone. The sight of this woman with an extremely corseted waist posing so haughtily is enough to send shivers down your spine. How can someone do that to themselves?
It's most likely that this woman didn't really cinch her waist the size of her neck with a piece of clothing. In all likelihood she (or a photo artist) manipulated the image to make the subject's waist look impossibly small. Look closely at the areas surrounding this woman's waist, the image is somewhat distorted and the legs of the Eifel Tower suddenly stop at her arm. It's well done early Photoshop, but not perfect.
At Shottery Brook, Stratford-Upon-Avon, 1890
Taken in 1890 at Stratford-Upon-Avon, the home of Shakespeare, this photo shows the day to day work of women in the 19th century. Gathering water from a nearby source was an all important task. This photo reminds modern viewers that taking a sip of water wasn't always as easy as turning on the tap.
Capturing water from a well or a nearby stream may sound easy but it's acually a time consuming chore. These women would have had to spend much of the morning gathering water to make sure that they had everything that was required for a full day of drinking, cooking, and bathing. It's a photo like this that reminds us not to take modern amenities for granted.
A thoughtful gargoyle looks over the Square Jean-XXIII, Paris
Of course it's made of stone, but this gargoyle looks like it's gazing down on the Square Jean-XXIII. More than just a square of land, this garden gives all of its visitors a view of the chevet of Paris cathedral. Anyone walking through the square can simply look up and see the 90 meter spire of Notre Dame and its stone chimeras.
Aside from a beautiful garden, the square features a neo-Gothic fountain that makes it look like the smaller brother of the cathedral at Notre Dame. Stone creatures aren't only found on the cathedral, they adorn the fountain in the square. Three angels stand victorious on the fountain over a figure that represents heresy.
Figure contemplating the mountains of Menzenc
It's likely that the first thought a viewer has when looking at this gloomy photo is "what is she looking at?" As this women stares off the craggy cliffs of Menzenc it's hard to know exactly what's going through her head. Is she contemplating her own life or the enormity of the natural world?
This photo looks like something from a dream. A world of fog and rock that only comes to you hours after you close your eyes and find yourself in a world that's both unreal and familiar. To think that this is a real place is absolutely fascinating.
A traveller and his horse, Romania, 1968
This eerie photo of a Romani man and his horse was snapped by Josef Koudelka. This Czech-French photographer traveled the world with nothing more than a backpack, his camera, and hundreds of rolls of film. Even though he was offered contracts with various journals and papers he never took a job because he wanted to work for himself.
Koudelka eventually took a position with Magnum, but he was adamant about sticking to his choice of only photographing things that were interesting to him. He explained:
For fifteen years, I didn’t work for anybody. I never accepted any assignment, never photographed for money. I took photographs just for myself. I lived on the minimum. I didn’t need much: a good sleeping bag and some clothes – one pair of shoes, two pairs of socks and a pair of trousers for one year. One jacket and two shirts lasted me for three years.
An early drag queen strikes a pose
The concept of drag queens evolved out of the early days of the theater when men played every part in a play, including those intended for women. When an actor wore a dress the gown often dragged across the boards and the term was born. It wasn't until the days of vaudeville that this kind of performance took on its own life.
During the era of vaudeville female impersonation became a mainstay in theaters across the western world. Julian Eltinge was one of the most well known drag performers at the time, although it's not likely that he or any other performer of his ilk would have been able to take their performance to the next step. Drag continued to be an underground phenomenon until the 1990s when artists like RuPaul really helped bring this performance art into the mainstream.
Charles Sodokoff and Arthur Webber use their top hats to hide their faces, 1942
Professionally known as "Weegee," Arthur Fellig's photography is all light and shadow. His photos capture the moments that his subjects would prefer that you forget. This shot shows two criminals covering their faces behind crumpled hats, their quest for infamy is one that they no longer desire.
There's a darkness present in this photo. What did these men do? What was their crime? Fellig's photo doesn't judge, it only captures a fleeting moment in time. He once said of his work:
People are so wonderful that a photographer has only to wait for that breathless moment to capture what he wants on film… and when that split second of time is gone, it’s dead and can never be brought back.
Untitled, Josef Koudelka 1962-1968
Josef Koudelka traveled through Europe in the 1960s, he snapped photos of the Roma settlements that he visited. For nearly a decade he stopped off in villages in Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, France, and Spain while taking photos along the way. Each of the snapshots provide an intimate look into the world of the Roma communities.
Curator John Szarkowski said of Koudelka's work in Eastern Europe:
Koudelka’s pictures seem to concern themselves with prototypical rituals, and a theater of ancient and unchangeable fables. Their motive is perhaps not psychological but religious. Perhaps they describe not the small and cherished differences that distinguish each of us from all others, but the prevailing circumstance that encloses us.
Carnival in Olomouc, Czechoslovakia, 1968
Photographer Josef Koudelka spent much of the 1960s traveling across Europe and capturing gloomy images that are both stark and overwhelming. In this era he didn't have a home, just the clothes on his back and his camera. As strange as that may sound today it's exactly what he wanted.
In a retrospective of his work Koudelka explained that he didn't want a home to worry about, he just wanted to be on the road snapping photos of anything that struck his fancy. He explained:
I didn’t have a flat – I didn’t need one. On the contrary, I tried to avoid owning anything. I didn’t pay rent. I realized that I could travel on the money that I would have spent on a flat. What I needed most was to travel so that I could take photographs…I knew that I didn’t need much to function – some food and a good night’s sleep. I learned to sleep anywhere and under any circumstances. I had a rule: ‘Don’t worry where you are going to sleep, so far you’ve slept almost every night, you’ll sleep again tonight. And if you sleep outdoors, you have two choices – to be afraid that something might happen to you and then you won’t sleep well, or accept the fact that anything might happen and get a good night’s sleep,' which is the most important thing you need to function well the next day.
Woman riding side saddle, 19th century
When a photo is taken of someone from behind it always asks the viewer to contemplate what the subject is thinking. Do they know they're being photographed? Did the consent to being the center of attention or was the photo taken surreptitiously?
As odd as this photo is, it gives us some insight into the history of horse riding in that during the 19th century women were expected to only ride side saddle. It was considered indecent for a woman to ride astride dating back to the 14th century. It wasn't until the early 20th century that society deemed it A-OK for a woman to break the tyranny of the side saddle.
Scherzo di Follia circa 1860s
This fascinating and absolutely creepy photo of the Countess Virginia Oldoini Verasis di Castiglione was taken some time between 1863 and 1866 by the photographer Pierre-Louis Pierson. The Countess came to Paris in 1855 when she was sent to win over Napoleon III. She accomplished her goal and was often seen with him at various balls and galas.
The Countess loved to be photographed and this is just one of more than 700 photos taken of her by Pierson. Rather than allow the photographer to create a mise en scene the Countess would direct Pierson. She knew her angles, she knew her lighting, and she knew that photographs of her could make her more of a presence in society.
Landscape with Figure, circa 1880 - 1882
There's something haunting about this photo of a woman walking through the forrests of Franch in the late 19th century. It begs the viewer to ask who they're looking at and what they're doing. Are they a ghost or simply passing through and never to be seen again?
The photos of Félix Thiollier all feel like a fleeting memory wrapped in the fog of time. His ability to make the real feel like something imagined wasn't appreciated in his time, but today his photos make the past feel like something out of another dimension. He didn't so much as capture an accurate representation of his surroundings as he made the world around look the way it did in his head.
Two cowboys hold hands in sheep skin skirts
The camera can tell us many things. We can learn what a certain style was like in a different era, the way someone looks in the morning, or even how the world looked decades ago, but without context many historical photos are left as curiosities. It's genuinely unclear what's happening in this photo.
If you take a look around online you'll see plenty of theories, but there's no way to know if this was just a fad in the photography world of the 1890s. The sheepskin skirts are definitely the strangest part of this photo, what's their purpose beyond warmth? This shot is genuinely fascinating, mostly because we'll never know the exact circumstances surrounding it.
Shadow, New York City, 1966
The photos of Lee Friedlander have a shadowy menace that's most on display in this photo of a man's shadow directly on top of a woman. He used the chaos of the city and the tangled buildings as his subjects, creating sometimes humorous and sometimes upsetting images. As a street photographer his subjects are almost always caught off guard and sometimes unaware of that their photos are being taken.
In 2019, Friedlander explained why he was drawn to photography and his misconception of what he would actually be doing:
I always wanted to be a photographer. I was fascinated with the materials. But I never dreamed I would be having this much fun. I imagined something much less elusive, much more mundane.
The Croagh Patrick pilgrimage, County Mayo, Ireland, 1972
Taken by Josef Koudelka in 1972, this photo that looks like a snapshot of refugees on the move is actually a snapshot of men taking a pilgrimage across Croagh Patrick - a mountain in county Mayo. Every year on the last Sunday of July thousands of people make this walk. At the end of the trek the festival of Lughnasadh takes place.
The whole thing began back in the 5th century when Saint Patrick made the climb and began a 40 day ritual of fasting and penance. While this story may sound apocryphal, an archaeological dig in the 1990s uncovered a chapel that may have been used by Patrick. It's a beautiful sight that inspires people to this day.
Decor for a fete or fair, Saint-Etienne
Many of the photos taken by Félix Thiollier explore the way in which nature and humanity mix in dreamy tableaus of fog and mist. However, he also wanted to show the dilapidation and rot of the modern city in the 19th century. This shot from 1890 makes the dirty side streets of Saint-Etienne look as if they're a part of play that's just about the end.
Taken years before photographs of industrial sites were seen as having artistic merit, Thiollier's work in the cityscapes paved the way for numerous photographers. At the time the photographer referred to his series of images of cityscapes as maps of "worthless" locations. These images show the empty, the desolate, and the dystopian.
Black dog in the snow, 1987
Running through the snow of Eastern Europe is a black dog. It winds and twists through the frozen wasteland, never stopping for a moment to allow its unseen pursurers to catch up. Its photo snapped in an instant, immortalizing the shadow until the end of time.
Taken by Josef Koudelka, this chilling photo was snapped after he took a position with Magnum Photography. Rather than take assignments for various jobs he traveled the world photographing life in the streets of Europe, cataloguing a life that no longer exists in the 21st century. While speaking about what drives him to take such stark and surreal photos of real life he explained:
I never accepted any assignment, never photographed for money. I took photographs just for myself.
Fog and sky, 19th century
This unforgettable and chilling image by Félix Thiollier doesn't just show the atmospheric depths of the Europe in the 19th century, but the way the real blends with the surreal. Thiollier didn't start taking photos professionally until he was 35 years old. Up until then he worked as a ribbon manufacturer in Saint-Étienne, France.
Thiollier's obsessions weren't simply with portrait photography or capturing nature, but with the way that nature blended with the modern world. He created an aesthetic all to his own that was both dreamy and incredibly rustic. Unrecognized in his time, today Thiollier's work is incredibly influential.
Emma Thiollier painting on top of one of the towers of Notre Dame, 1907
Taken in France at the turn of the century, this photo turns the grandeur of the Notre Dame catherdral into something haunting and ghoulish. In what looks like a still from a black and white horror film, Emma Thiollier poses in between the stone gargoyles that perch at the edges of the building. Is she afraid or simply awe struck?
As frightening as these creatures are they do serve a purpose. When it rains over Notre Dame water runs down the roof and off the gargoyles, keeping the walls from getting too much water damage. These ancient stone creatures don't just watch over France, they keep Notre Dame safe.
Covered car – Long Beach, California, 1955
Photographer Robert Frank was fascinated by American muscle, those cars that sped down the highway in the middle of the 20th century. Burning rubber and the smell of gasoline came second to the aesthetic pleasures of these cars. Unsurprisingly, Frank was brought up in Switzerland where the car culture was essentially nonexistent.
When Frank came to America in the 1950s he found that the American automobile was as much a means of transport as it was a key to freedom. The poet Jack Kerouac wrote of this photo:
Car shrouded in fancy expensive designed tarpolian to keep soots of no-soot Malibu from falling on new simonize job as owner who is two-dollar-an-hour carpenter snoozes in house with wife, and TV, all under palm trees for nothing, in the cemeterial California night.
Exiles by Josef Koudelka, taken August, 1968
Taken during the Soviet invasion of Prague, this photo could have landed Josef Koudelka in prison... or worse. Koudelka had only started taking photos a year prior, but when the Soviets invaded Prague in '68 he captured the event from every angle possible. His photos of the event were published under the initials P. P. (Prague Photographer) to ensure that he and his family were kept safe.
Koudelka's photos of the Soviet invasion were the beginning of his "Exiles" series. In 2015, he explained his process and the drive to capture every moment of an event before moving on:
To be in exile is simply to have left one’s country and to be unable to return. Every exile is a different, personal experience. Myself, I wanted to see the world and photograph it. That’s forty-five years I’ve been travelling. I’ve never stayed anywhere more than three months. When I found no more to photograph, it was time to go.
Siphnos, 1961
This eerie image of a young girl dashing between buildings looks like something from a dream, or a misremembered moment in time. A memory of something glanced as you make your way through the streets of a European city. Taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson, this photo is both surreal and all too normal.
In context, the photo is somewhat normal. There's nothing eerie about a girl running around an empty city, it's the way that the artist frames the subject with buildings towering over her and waiting to close in that make everything about this photo seem as if it's a snapshot of a nightmare. It's a one of a kind moment, one that audiences will never forget.
The lovers of the Bastille column, 1957
Photographed by Willy Ronis, this snapshot of two young people standing on the precipice of the July Column as Paris unfolds in front of them. The man whispers into his partner's ear. What he's saying has been lost to time, a memory between two lovers that will forever be unknowable to the viewer.
Ronis often captured photos of young lovers, even though he knew what his critics would say. He wrote in his journal:
'Photographing couples on the banks of the Seine in spring — what a cliché!’ But why deprive yourself of the pleasure? Every time I encounter lovers, my camera smiles; let it do its job.
Kids in a Box on the Street, New York City, 1942
Even the most simple childhood games can look absolutely chilling when seen through the right lens. How many of us have played in a box with our friends? It's a way to pass the time in the summers, a way to make our own worlds in the middle of a place that's all too real.
The photography of Helen Levitt is not only aesthetically pleasing, but it perceives the worlds that exist in our own worlds. This photo shows the way that our youngest are able to make their own space in the center of the real world. It shows how we have the capability to create something new even if we lose that ability as we grow older.
Kids on the Street Playing Hide and Seek, New York City, 1942
Taking a camera out into the street can be thrilling, you never know what you'll find. Helen Levitt's images of every day life take on a haunting factor when presented without context. This snapshot of a boy playing hide and seek in the middle of a busy town strikes us as strange, what about you?
In essence, there's nothing off about this photo. It's a game that people throughout the ages have played but the way its presented here is so strange, so eerie. It's a voyeuristic look at something so simple that it becomes a haunting take on a every day life in the suburbs.
A gargoyle looking over Paris
The gargoyles of Notre Dame watch over Paris with monstrous grins, waiting for the rains to come so they can do their jobs and protect the cathedral. The massive church is covered with these stone grotesques who keep the church safe from evil spirits. Added in the 13th century, the gargoyles have since become the most popular feature of the church.
Architects were inspired by the models that they saw on the temples of Rome and Greece as well as figures from French folklore. Based on the story La Gargouille about a monster that breathed fire before its head was nailed to a church where it became a waterspout, these stone grotesques were born. By 1345, Notre Dame had whole flocks of limestone gargoyles plastered to its outside walls where they guard the building to this day.
Mining Landscape, Saint-Etienne circa 1895-1910
Thiollier's dreamy eye wasn't kept strictly to beautiful French landscapes, much of his work at the turn of the 20th century was focused on capturing the lonely vistas of the "industrial image." Mines, factories, and decaying towns were all photographed against the dying light of the day. A patina of dust and decay fills every inch of these frames.
This photo captures the emptiness of the industrial revolution, a time when the western world was changing. Thiollier himself was a wealthy industrialist who put the world of machinery behind him to do nothing but work on his farm and take photographs. All of his work is stunning, but it's industrial images that capture the way in which mankind relates to the architectural landscapes of the day.
Stragglers walk across a mining Landscape, Saint-Etienne
The men in this photo resemble ghosts walking along the grounds of a forgotten mine. Captured at the tail end of the 19th century, these men are an important part of the world changing into a fully industrialized society. Even though we can't see their faces it's clear that these men have worked a long day and that there are many more long days to follow.
Many photos from this era show the grit and the grime of the industrial revolution. They show the coal scrubbed into the concrete and the faces of the workers drenched in sweat after hours at the factory. But in this photo we see the industrial revolution as a dream on the verge of changing the world.
Idylle Forézienne
Is it a tree or is it a cloud? Thiollier's landscape photography is obviously taken here on Earth, but it often feels as if his camera is capturing images from another plane of existence. This goosebump-inducing photo captures things that we see every day - trees and clouds - and makes them look incredibly special.
It's an understatement to say that mother nature is photogenic. Take a step into any national park and you'll be astounded by the grandeur of everything around you, but it's impossible to capture it on a phone or even a point and shoot camera. Thiollier's haunting images don't just come from his camera, they come from his eye, his hand, and his technology.
A quiet moment during the Prague Invasion, 1960s
The work of Josef Koudelka would be only half as poignant if it weren't for the the Soviet invasion of Prague in 1968. On August 21, 1968, the Red Army rushed through the streets of Prague while citizens did everything they could to halt the military's efforts. Some people fought the soldiers, others tried to confuse them, Josef Koudelka picked up a camera and started snapping photos.
Koudelka is quick to remind his viewers that he didn't take the photos to get a job or to win an award, he knew that the invasion had to be documented so that's what he did. He said:
The Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 concerned my life directly. It was my country. I took these photographs for myself, not for a magazine. It was only by chance that they were published. I wasn’t a reporter. I had never photographed anything that you would call ‘news’. Suddenly, for the first time in my life, I was confronted with that kind of situation. I responded to it. I knew it was important to photograph, so I photographed. I didn’t think much about what I was doing.
Prague Spring begins in Czechoslovakia
When Alexander Dubcek succeeded Antonin Novotny as the leader of Czechoslovakias the first time in a long time that political reform had come to the country. Dubcek helped bring freedom of speech to the country as well as a way for political dissidents to return to the fold. His goal was to put a "human face" to communism.
Known as the Prague Spring, Dubcek's changes were celebrated across the country, but the happiness couldn't stick forever. In August 1968, the Soviet Army sent 600,000 troops into Prague devastating the small amount of resistance fighters they found in the city. A pro-Soviet government was put in place and the liberal reforms of the era were done away with.
The Verpilleux coking plant, near Saint-Etienne
This beautiful photo of a coking plant begs the question, what is a coking plant? Coking occurs when coal is burned without oxygen to a temperature above 600 °C, leaving nothing but a hard piece of material with a high carbon content. Used primarily in blast furnaces, it allows iron waste to be removed from the furnace.
The process is painfully hot and it can scorch anything that gets in its way, which is why this is such a haunting photo. How is that a process so volatile can make such a beautiful piece of art? That's the power that Thiollier had when there was a camera in his hands.
Two men tip a coal bin, 19th century
This image of two men locked in the Sisyphean task of tipping a coal bin is both dreamy and haunting. Under all of the haze and hypnagogic lens work of Thiollier the image shows the pain circumstances under which men during the Industrial Revolution. Breathing in air dense with coal dust, working in the sweltering heat, it was hard work bring the world into the modern age.
As England entered the Industrial Revolution the call for coal became louder and louder. Factories developed througought the country where men would travel hundreds of feet into the ground where they had to worry about dangerous gasses and pit collapses. Even the men who survived these fearful conditions had to worry about the dreaded black lung in the name of progress.
Undergrowth in Forez, 1870s
How did Thiollier capture such hypnotic images on film? One of his greatest influences was his friend, the painter Morestel who was also a fledgling photographer. The two men often went "photographicking" with one another through France.
They favored places that had no human footprint, whether it be streams of cool water or the undergrowth that came up along the paths through the countryside. On these trips Thiollier decided that he wanted people to know the beauty of the landscapes that he saw all around him. Through his romanticism and use of sunset and sunrise Thiollier was able to give these images the romanticism that they needed.
Willow trees near the duck pond at Verrières, 19th century
The mirror image of the water in this duck pond only adds to the surreal quality of this image. The twisting trunks and the outstretched branches of the trees around the duck pond are beautiful but there's a sinister nature to their framing. Thioller's photography always finds a way to intermingle the dream and the nightmare.
It's hard to imagine a place like this existing in such an empty place today. Wouldn't it be overrun by selfie taking Instagrammers? That's what is so haunting about this image, it's a place that we'll never see in the same way again... unless we see it in our dreams.
A woman draped in a black shroud watches the day go by
This image gives off the feeling of uncanny valley, the sensation of something that's almost real but isn't. Thiollier's photo work here isn't meant to the menacing, but the combination of the framing of this woman against the hills of Europe and her black shroud make her feel unsettling in a way that's hard to put your finger on. The big question is, what is she doing?
It's most likely that this woman is in mourning. Her clothing jives with the traditional attire worn by the bereaved in the Victorian era, at the time widows were expected to wear traditional black clothing for at least two years. It's hard to tell how long she's been in mourning, but if we had to guess she's in the thick of it.
