Photograph of the Loch Ness Monster

Silver gelatin photographic print by Associated Newspapers Limited, dated June 1962. Famous photograph of Loch Ness monster. Newspaper cutting on verso reads: "This picture is of [the Loch Ness monster's] head and neck - the most famous ever of the supposed monster - was taken by a London surgeon in 1934. Other photographs show what are said to be the monster's humps just breaking the water and the wash set up by it swimming through the Loch at high speed."

When photography was still relatively new, people often believed that the camera could see more than the human eye. Capturing fantastical beasts and supernatural occurrences on camera was seen as a way of proving their existence. A photograph claiming to show the Loch Ness monster was regarded as proof by some people until the truth was revealed almost 60 years later. This famous photograph taken by Marmaduke Wetherell and published in the Daily Mail in 1934 was later revealed to be a hoax. A putty-covered toy submarine was made to look like ‘Nessie’. The waves gave away the trick: they did not behave like large waves.