Workers Leaving a Factory in Droylsden (1901)

Workers in Edwardian Lancashire become ghostly thanks to an odd camera effect.

Mitchell and Kenyon used excellent photographers, but accidents will happen. The effect of shooting at the wrong shutter speed here has a strange consequence we associate with modern special effects: a figure in the foreground remains still as the background world whizzes around them. As a result, the children outside this Lancashire factory seem substantial while the adults are mere shadows.