The Hokumburg Goombah

Im not sure how you pictured that image but that does not look like two person. It seems to be one person and his reflection that is set in a conspicuous shape due to the angle of the sun

It's obviously the same person in the picture! With the long exposure time it took for a daguerreotype, the same person stood for a moment with his leg up, them climbed up and stood for another moment. The same effect can be seen with the use of a pinhole camera. Long exposure times can create ghost images, and with a long enough exposure time, 10 images of the same person can be seen in the same picture. Any photography buff could explain this to you, its two imagesof the same person.

I looked at this same image on http://www.rochester.edu/news/photos/daguerreotype.html where I could zoom in and out at will. It seems as if those 2 men are actually the same person because the clothing is very similar. Plus if you look around the picture magnified. I found a total of 5, possibly 6 people.

My dog who doesn't exist and I (who does, semi-exist), believe it is the first alien encounter, photographed.
On a more serious note (for those who are humor impaired) I was wondering if this type of photography not only had the habit of capturing the same person twice in one shot, but also captured that individual's shadows as well. When one looks at the photo, shadows of the "people" and something resembling a board are seen in the water for each.

I don't know if anyone else posted this but there seems to be a man in a suit walking to the right of the Lath Factory.

George W. Bush in 2012.

couple of things: 1) It looks as if they are both looking out to the water diagnoly to the left. Reason = if you look at their "bibs" "ruffles" what ever you wanna call it, and go slightly to the right you will see a darkened area - as where your shoulder would be.
But, it also looks as if the shorter one is at an agle somewhat facing the taller one ( if the shorter one were to be wearing a vest with a white shirt)

2) I did think the "shorter" one was kneeling, but what gets me is A) why are his legs so dark compared to the rest of him and the other person. B)and his legs look really really wide compared to the other.


3)And maybe his legs arent really his legs, what if it's something that is attached to the beam/wall, something that was used to tie down the boats to...(small ones maybe) and the person is just standing behind it

- Are there any other pics of this area to compare to?

Either way, wow- what a cool pic

its obviously captain morgan doing his calssic pose for the camera. duh anybody with eyes could see that.(no offense to the blind ha)

Okay, I got it...It's two men passing time after church while their wives are still yapping. The one on the left is kneeling on his right knee with a fishing pole in his hand. The one on the right, with the shiny bald spot, is standing up. They are both looking into the water for one of three reasons: 1)the guy on the left caught something and his pole didn't have a reel so he is pulling it in, 2)the guy on the right dropped his wallet and the other guy is trying to get it for him, or 3)they see a distant cousin of the lochness monster and really wish that someone would hurry up and invent a camera because NOBODY is going to believe them.

looks like the 1 on the right is wearing a dress!

At first I thought the guy on the left was kneeling as well. But it's such an odd pose for an adult to maintain over a long period. And the left leg is at an odd angle. It looks more like he's sitting on something with his knees splayed. They look like two men to me. I agree that the guy on the right appears to be balding, but to me the guy on the left also looks like he's wearing a hat.

Why this photo is becoming news after over 200 years!!

I believe that they are two of the employees of the riverboat in the larger picture. Probably black men wearing suits with the very white and very stiffly starched "bib" shirt front that men used to wear at that time. It was a piece of clothing that was only for "show". It didn't have any other parts other than the piece that went around the neck and the front piece that showed from under the waistcoat(vest). They probably were taking a break and chatted only long enough to be partially photographed.

i know not any people may reead this but just in case. i have some intrest in this photo and there wereing bibs it looks like there wereing suits (since its a photo from the 1800's) and there suits back then were like that and it looks like one guy is siting down and there other is standind up facing the guy sitting

When I first saw the picture I thought the "bucket" was a child. Also, I see the male figures as two distinct persons, the head shapes are different, the way the light reflects on them is different.

I believe that this is an early episode of Mythbusters trying to prove/disprove the legend of George Washington throwing a silver dollar across the Potomac. The man on the right is reaching into his pocket to get the dollar while the man on the left is squatting down to analyze the best trajectory for the throw. Back in 1848 it was widely accepted that all rivers were the same width, so it didnt matter if it was the Ohio or Potomac River.

Or, it is a photo of present day Gary, Indiana.

I bet the photographer and definitely the person (or people) on the dock had no clue to the importance of that moment. Who knows how many people in the future will peer into this window of time.

Looks to me like a male kneeling and a female standing beside him. Both look to be wearing those White fluffy layered bib thingies they wore back then... Weird thing is that they both look to be of African origin? Slave Servants mabye? and their head sure are round! lol I don't think it's shopped 'cause you can see their shadows down in the water, directly under them...but I'm with Jaun...lol great pic, but makes me feel uncomfortable for some reason. It's kinda scarey.

What I find fascinating about this whole subject is not just the picture itself, which is certainly amazing, but the socialogical aspect of the comments. There are the completely serious, humorless explanations of the daguerreotype photography technique explaining why one person appears to be two, along with the responses of those just having fun, ie, ghosts and aliens, etc; and still another group of apparently unimaginative individuals who see nothing of interest. What a fascinating study of human interaction.Thank all of you for your responses, it just reinforces all our beloved individualism and yet a sense of community.
If the time of exposure is responsible for the '2nd person' which is the most likely explanation, what about the 3rd person up by the lath factory? There is only one person w/o the double image, unless the 'original person' has already entered the building and we are seeing only the double image; or is it the other way around(we are seeing the original, the 'double' has entered the building)?
And another thing: why is it assumed the 'standing person' is the original, why can't the 'sitting/kneeling person' be the original who stood up.

Just amazing stuff

Not a photographer but I have a theory on the white spots their chests. Whether it's 2 people or 1 that remained stationary in 2 positions long enough to capture the image, is it possible that whatever they are wearing around their necks was moving in the breeze and therefore was not captured on the photo but also kept that portion on the chest from being recorded? Hence the weird shaped white areas are blank spots in the image. I rest my case your honor. Thank you ......Thank you very much.

If you look at the edge of the water where the dock meets the water, you can see an orb that could easily be a person in the water that "kneeling guy" is talking to or trying to help out. Also, if you look at the water you can see lines of shadow in the water that are consistent with the two standing figures as reflection. The reflective lines in the water also suggest that there might have been others in the photo that moved too quickly out of frame and were not exposed as such on the plate. There are lots of round faint orbs that could speak to transitory figures that passed in and out of frame as the plate was being exposed over several seconds.

It's most likely two men (notice the spot on their heads yield a different shine). Daguerreotypes only required a few seconds exposure, it was the processing that took time.

Playing around a bit with contrast and brightness, I'm fairly certain that the man on the left is black and the one standing is white and possibly bald which would account for the shiny pate. I think the white guy is wearing ruffles and knickers.
This is in no way racist, just an observation from working with it and blowing it up.

FB

Clearly these are two ghosts.

These are children - they're not wearing hats. A man would not go out in public without a hat back in 1848. Also, the figure on the right seems to have bare legs so he may be wearing short pants. This would be another indication that it's a boy.

I think it's 2 kids...and the taller one is kneeling on one knee (such as the way one might propose to someone). Also, they look to be african-american.
That is not a short wall they are behind. that whole thing, the entire wooden structure, is a little run-down dock. Hence children playing on it.

if it was two different people, there would absolutely be no transparency

I think it is one person, the lenght of time required to take the photo the man moved about stopped long enough to appear in the two positions.

it was probably a long exposure...since this was taken forever ago. and you can recreate the "ghost" image easily. i would say its definitely one person..just moved positions

I have the impression that the person standing is a girl (by the clothes).

They are looking toward the same point of interest while standing in relation to one another so as to commune about what hey see. Would one person portray such a relationship? There are many other aspects detailing them as two people, but the main thing is that if one person even had the time to make two such impressions upon the camera media before the shutter was replaced (which he wouldn't)he would likely never in a million make the same ghostly image density in both positions.

There is also someone standing in front of the park bench in the full picture....looks to me anyways!

Photo exposure times were very long in those early days of photography. If the person (or people) had simply walked through the area during the exposure they wouldn't have registered in the photo. To be seen they had to have stopped and remained fairly still for a minute. When they eventually left the film continued to record what was in front of it. Therefore the people appear transparent. It's something like a double exposure effect. Studied all of this stuff at college years ago while on my way to a diploma in applied photography.

Oh my god, people!
It's just one man wearing a white cravat (you know, old style tie) looking at the water from different poses. You know, everything doesn't have a hidden meaning.
yes I'm talking to you, everyone who thinks it's a picture of a man proposing to a woman.
Fashion-wise, NONE of the two figures are a woman.
WOMEN DIDN'T WEAR CRAVATS!

Also, they're both wearing pants.

The man kneeling on the left has dark pants on, you can see the extra width added to his legs. The person on the right who is standing does not have pants on, you can see the thinness of the legs. Pants back the were full, you can easily see the difference.

Where in the world do these people with such conclusions come from? What proper person of any part of society of that period-or any, period truly (without being cajoled into a dramatic display on purpose for benefit of the camera, which often was the case as otherwise many period shots were quite heavily staged) -would "propose" to his mate at such a dreary, commercial, dirty, stinking, riverfront wharf as this? And at the precise moment this "wondrous event" happens, to be caught by this singularly rare occurrence of an early photograph being taken? Preposterous. Think with clarity and without attached emotions clouding the logic. It simply appears to be two Negro workers, or perhaps even two small children fishing or otherwise engaged at the water's edge.