Édouard Isidore Buguet

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Édouard Isidore Buguet
Edouard Buguet
Born
Édouard Isidore Buguet

(1840-07-13)July 13, 1840
Saint-Mard-de-Réno
DiedOctober 29, 1890(1890-10-29) (aged 50)
10th arrondissement of Paris
CitizenshipFrench
OccupationPhotograoher
Known forMediumship and Spirit photography
Spirit photography hoaxer Édouard Isidore Buguet[1] (1840–1901) of France fakes telekinesis in this 1875 cabinet card photograph titled Fluidic Effect.


Édouard Isidore Buguet (French pronunciation: [edwaʁ izidɔʁ byɡɛ]; 1840–1901) was a French medium and spirit photographer.[2]

Buguet became a "sensation" among spiritualists during the early 1870s. He was even loaned money to set up his own studio. In June 1875, a police sting operation in Paris discovered that Buguet's photographic plates had pre-exposed images on them. After the exposure, Buguet admitted in court that his photographs were fraudulent.[3][4][5] He was convicted and served a year jail time.[2][6] According to the magician Harry Houdini, the police discovered figures and doll heads at Buguet's studio. He had used these as his "spirit" extras. Houdini noted that although Buguet was exposed as a fraud and he had confessed, some spiritualists still insisted his spirit photographs were genuine.[2]

The English medium

Stainton Moses had supported Buguet in an article for Human Nature in May 1875.[7] After Buguet was exposed later in the same year, Moses insisted that Buguet was still a genuine medium and he had been bribed to make a false confession.[8][9] The case has been cited by researchers as an example of spiritualists willing to believe and refusing to accept evidence of fraud.[2][10][11]

References

  1. ^ "New exhibit looks at occult photography - East Valley Tribune: Get Out". East Valley Tribune. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-1-108-02748-9
  3. ISBN 978-0977282739
    "In June 1875, Buguet was tried for fraud. He quickly confessed to surreptitiously double-exposing his plates with images of dummies, or his studio assistants, dressed up in drapery. Police raided his studio and seized two dummies, shrouds, false beards, and almost 300 pictures of various heads glued onto card."
  4. ISBN 0-275-98713-2
  5. ISBN 978-0-7391-1339-4
  6. ISBN 978-0-415-97235-2
  7. ISBN 978-1111354879
    "Stainton Moses warmly endorsed Buguet in an article printed in May, 1875. In June, 1875, the French government arrested Buguet for fraud. At his trial he made a complete confession, and the police seized and produced his "spirit" doll and the collection of heads that fitted on it."
  8. ^ Frank Podmore. (1902). Modern Spiritualism: A History and Criticism. Volume 2. London: Methuen & Co. pp. 120-123.
  9. ^ Simeon Edmunds. (1966). Spiritualism: A Critical Survey. Aquarian Press. p. 115. "Stainton Moses even insisted that the prosecution was instigated by the Church, and that Buguet had been forced or bribed into making a false confession."
  10. ISBN 978-0750936842
  11. ISBN 0-690-00476-1
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