I met up with a Facebook friend to have lunch. Both loving photography, we walked along the Toronto harbour front taking photographs and decided to stop and eat at the Amsterdam Brewhouse. The Amsterdam Brewhouse is situated in Pier 4.
The Pier 4 building, originally known as Transit Shed #4 was constructed along the East side of John Quay in 1930. Spanning almost 14000 square feet, the building has housed several restaurants including Wally Magoos Marine Bar and the Pier 4 Restaurant that operated for 35 Years. The Amsterdam Brewhouse took over the premises in 2013.
The day I went the Restuarant was busy at the front in the bar area so we were led to the back of the restaurant to a seat in the corner looking out at the water. There was no tables behind us.
We ordered food and as I love to share my adventures on social media I was taking pictures all the time, alternating between my camera and my iPhone camera. I saw the sconce on the wall between where we were seated and loving steampunky stuff I took a picture of it. The sconce was no bigger than a dinner plate, the shards roughly 10cm at their widest. I was sitting side on to the sconce, my friend was facing it. I turned and took the picture. The only people anywhere near me when the photograph was taken was my friend, facing the sconce and me side on. No one was behind us or around us.
The next day I cropped the picture and placed it in a collage with a photograph of the exterior of the Amsterdam Brewhouse and the yummy meringue I had eaten for dessert and placed it on all my social media but didn't notice the "face". I was inundated with private messages asking about the "creepy face" reflected in the sconce. When I saw it my stomach turned.
The next night I went back to the Amsterdam Brewhouse and I approached the wait staff and showed them the picture on my iPad. Their response was like mine, creeped out. Even though there was a private party and it was busy they led me to the table to look at the sconce. That table was empty despite the crowd. We all sat with the iPad open at the table and tried to reenact the picture. Within seconds knowing and seeing it was impossible.
Freaked out I sent the picture to a friend that is a video production person. He broke the picture into shards on the screen. He explained that each shard of the sconce was reflecting normally. The centre of it was concave and the images in it were upside down, also normal. The one shard that wasn't normal was the one with the face. He said it seemed like the face was not reflected but was inside the shard looking out. He could not explain the anomaly.
Another friend placed the picture on his paranormal show forum. All that happened was people saying it was photoshopped. I wish it was. Firstly I have no where near the skill to do something like that in Photoshop but most importantly it's on the Raw file on my camera.
There is all sorts of mythology and belief around the spirit world and mirrors.
Ancient Chinese myth has a notion of the mirror as an alternative universe. Some cultures believe that mirrors have the power to capture and trap souls, even going so far as to cover mirrors when a house has illness or death. Mirrors are also used in divination. catoptromancy and enoptromancy, practices in which mirrors are used to capture the reflection of the moon to foresee the future.
The picture and the reflection in the mirror sconce remain a mystery.
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