Kirlian photography

High-voltage contact print photography.

The process is called Kirlian after Semyon Kirlian, who discovered the effect in the 1930s (was it 1936?).

Following the accidental discovery that if an object on a photographic plate is subjected to a high-voltage electric field, an image is created on the plate. The images resemble a rough outline of the object like a colourful halo.

It was said of living objects that the image created was a physical proof of the life force which allegedly surrounds all living things, because after cutting a leaf there remains the whole leaf for a while on the Kirlian image. But, this holds to be true for a piece of metal as well.

Nowadays, Kirlian photography is beeing studied as a potential diagnostic tool, especially in oncology?.