VOA标准英语2016--幽灵照片问世

幽灵照片问世

Photographer John Milleker is setting up for a "spirit" photo shoot in Sky Meadows State Park in Delaplane, Virginia. But first, he tells visitors about William Mumler, who came up with the idea of spirit photography.

在弗吉尼亚州的“天堂草地”州立公园，摄像师约翰·米勒正在拍摄“幽灵”照片。但首先，他要向民众介绍一下想出拍摄“幽灵”的威廉·莫拉。

And he had taken a self-portrait of himself and a spirit happened to appear on the plate with him. He thought his plate wasn't cleaned properly. But when he took it to his friends and family, they thought it very resembled a cousin of his who had died 12 years prior.

他先为自己拍了一张半身像，感光板中就出现了他和“幽灵”的图像。他本以为感光板没有擦洗干净。但当他把照片拿给朋友和家人看时，他们觉得照片中的“幽灵”非常像12年前过世的堂弟。

Mumler drew well-to-do clients for his expensive portraits, convincing them that spirits could put themselves in photographs. They included Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of President Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated¹ days after the end of the U.S. Civil War. More than 600,000 soldiers died in the conflict, and some people longed for proof that their loved ones were in the afterlife. Mumler claimed he could provide that proof in a photo, but also warned that the spirit might not appear or look like the person they knew.

莫拉用这种半身像来吸引有钱顾客，并告诉他们照片中会出现“幽灵”。这些“幽灵”包括亚伯拉罕·林肯夫人玛丽·托德·林肯，内战结束的几天后，林肯惨遭刺杀。内战死亡士兵超过了60万人，许多人坚信他们的所爱之人依然生活在来生。莫拉称他能够在照片中实现，但称“幽灵”很有可能与所爱之人有所出入。

And then he would explain the physical form and the spiritual form doesn't always look exactly the same way.

还解释称，肉体和灵魂不会永远一致。

But in Milleker's photo, the "spirit" always appear. He uses a glass plate and a camera with a lens from the 1860s to mimic² Mumler's photos. Milleker says there are several ways Mumler may have created his images including using a double exposure.

但是在米勒的照片中，永远都会出现“幽灵”。他利用玻璃感光板，以及19世纪80年代的照相机来模仿莫拉的照片。米勒认为拍摄“幽灵”照片的方法很多，包括二次曝光。

Taking a photograph of someone, putting the lens cap back on, adding someone, and then taking the lens cap back off again.

先照张相，盖上镜头盖，把“幽灵”增加上去，再打开镜头盖。

Milleker develops his photos the same way Mumler did, using a wet plate collodion process that produces a negative image on transparent³ glass. Visitors are fascinated by the results.

米勒的方法和莫拉一致，利用火棉胶“湿板”摄影法，在透明玻璃上生成负像。游客对照片感到惊奇。

It's really shocking. I've never seen anything like this.

这太震惊了。我从来没见过。

Milleker shows one way to tell his "spirit" is fake. My thought will be,ok If there's a spirit image that we weren't really sure was going to come up on this plate, then how come we left enough space on the right-hand side for him to show up?

米勒告诉人们他的“幽灵”是假的。如果我们不知道感光板中的“幽灵”是什么样子，那么我们又如何要在左边留出空间让他“显型”？

 

Milleker said his clients like the nostalgia⁴ of spirit images. And this couple even have a one-of-a-kind engagement picture.

米勒称顾客喜欢“幽灵”图像，怀旧感油然而生。这对夫妻拍摄了“特殊”的订婚照片。

1 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

2 mimic   

v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人

参考例句：

• A parrot can mimic a person's voice.鹦鹉能学人的声音。
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another.他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

3 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

4 nostalgia   

n.怀乡病，留恋过去，怀旧

参考例句：

• He might be influenced by nostalgia for his happy youth.也许是对年轻时幸福时光的怀恋影响了他。
• I was filled with nostalgia by hearing my favourite old song.我听到这首喜爱的旧歌，心中充满了怀旧之情。