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Cooper Family Photo
This is a classic creepy image. One that's been floating around since before I can even remember. And although the image itself is creepy enough, there exists a story that is usually posted along with it.
Sometime in the 1950s, the Cooper Family bought an old house in Texas and moved into it. On their first night there, the father took a photograph of his wife, the kids, and their grandma. When he subsequently had the photo developed, the family saw a horrifying image of what appeared to be a falling or hanging body right beside them.
I'm actually delighted to talk about this one, because this internet mystery has actually been fully solved. Thanks to the YouTuber Jeffiot, we now know the artist that created this image as well as how it was made to begin with.
The photographer known as Richard G. Ramsdell created this picture back in the 80s. His reason for doing so is as follows:
"In December of 1980, a few days after the killing of John Lennon, I had a dream. In this dream I saw a variety of scenes with children in them; one was a birthday party with sniper scope cross hairs over the faces of the children. Another was a playground with a mushroom cloud on the horizon (an image that was in the 1991 Terminator 2 movie). The dream had a soundtrack. Pat Benatar’s Hell is for Children. (I don’t think I’ve heard it since.)
After that dream I collected a large number of family snapshot negatives and got to work. The results were a series of images where people in ordinary situations were seemingly oblivious to their looming fate."
From the Studio Ramsdell Blog
The image was created by projecting the original photo, which is actually a photo from Ramsdell's own childhood (he's one of the little boys in the photo!), and then hanging upside down in front of it. With his camera set up to snap a photograph of the photograph. Thus creating the interesting effect seen in the image. No photoshop used here!
The idea that the little boy in the photograph, is actually the hanging body all grown up, is quite an interesting addition to the story imo. It makes it even creepier to consider and think about.
The image, now known as Cooper or Copper Family Photo is part of a collection by Ramsdell called "Yesterday Revisioned". Which features not only this infamous photograph, but also a lot of others in the same style as well. I highly, highly reccomend checking it out!!