In 1861, a man was taking a self-portrait when he captured something on film that had never been seen before. Next to William H. Mumler was a ghost.

The photograph sparked controversy and a strange career for Mumler as he took his “talent” and began taking portraits of people who, later on, saw the images of dead relatives next to them.

Though his photographs were never proven to be false or genuine, Mumler started a public fascination with the spiritual world that has lived on today.

Crista Cloutier is the self-described “world expert” on Mumler’s life and wrote the first chapter in the book “The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult,” which is dedicated to the 19th century photographer.

“I first heard about Mumler 10 years ago,” Cloutier said. “I was a religious studies major at ASU and a professor suggested him to me for a thesis. After the thesis, I couldn’t let go and continued my research.”

Cloutier will present a slideshow of Mumler’s pictures and talk about the man who opened the public’s eyes to the supernatural.

More of a hobby, than an obsession, Cloutier discovered that Mumler sold his ghostly self-portrait photographs to the public, with most of them seeing dead relatives next to them after the pictures were developed.

Many, at the time, thought it was a scam.

“People started accusing him of breaking into their house and stealing their family photos,” Cloutier said. “It didn’t happen every time. But it happened often enough that he could make a living off of it.”

Toward the end of Mumler’s career, he was arrested for fraud, but was never convicted of anything. Cloutier said she has reserved judgment as to whether or not the photographs were real in the interest of conducting her research objectively.

“It would close off certain information,” Cloutier said. “I kept an open mind about it. We look at the photos now and they are so vague because we are looking at them with 21st-century eyes, and not 19th- century eyes.”

But if you ask her if she believes in ghosts, she has another answer for you.

“I do believe in ghosts,” Cloutier said. “But that doesn’t mean there are ghosts out there. A person’s belief in ghosts has more to do with their religious upbringing and their own life experience.”

As for Mumler’s descendants, he has no immediate family left. There are two elderly brothers that are relatives, but neither have children.

While Mumler’s bloodline may be dying, his love of the occult and the possibility of a spiritual world around us will live on through mediums, ghost hunters and anyone else who ever entered a dark room and felt their skin crawl.