This article was originally in the Late Winter 2009 issue of Snapshot, the project b Newsletter by Barbara Levine

Almost as soon as photography was invented people were coming up with ways to make photos that showed composites and illusions.This was aided by practical manuals of trick photography, such as Woodbury's Photographic Amusements (1896) and Eagleson's Trick Photography (1902). There was also a keen interest in cameras that could be concealed on the body (such as the necktie camera) and in magic photographs that could be made by putting sensitized paper into everyday objects.

The following is from Albert Hopkins' Magic, Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions, including Trick Photography , published in 1897. "A recent novelty is a cigar or cigarette holder accompanied by a small package of photographic paper about the size of a postage stamp. Place the paper in the interior of the holder. Light and smoke the cigar and the smoke of the tobacco, coming in contact with the chloride of the silver paper develops a portrait or other subject. The ammoniacal vapors contained in tobacco smoke possess, like sodium hyposulphite the property of coloring black the chloride of mercury contained in the prepared paper".

(Note: the author goes on to explain the several steps involved with developing, fixing and washing the tiny magical photograph).