Ghostly Spirits - continued...

Composite photographs are produced by superimposing negatives; they result in one photograph that shows superimposed, or as Galton says, generalized faces. Galton points out that the shapes of the different heads have to be similar and the eyes have to be blended exactly; nonetheless this procedure always produces inaccuracies. "The effect of composite portraiture is to bring into evidence all the traits in which there is agreement, and to leave but a ghost of a trace of individual peculiarities" (Inquiries, emphasis added).

reproduced from: Karl Pearson, Life, Letters and Labours of Francis Galton, vol. II, p. 295

The generalized faces have ghostly qualities for two reasons; the first is due to the inaccuracy of their outlines, the second is due to their function. Composites are both the representation of past generations blended over one another and the visualization of a future type. Just like apparitions, the composites are materializations of dead ancestors and speak to the living from another world that can be situated in any time, but they themselves and their world, are, by definition, absent; the visual noise they produce is spaceless and timeless. It is ghostly.