Background
Photographs attributed to Soviet-era geophysicist Leonid Semyonovich Pritsker have renewed interest among UFO researchers because of their alleged depiction of humanoid figures in locations where no such subjects were reportedly visible at the time. The images, said to have been taken in Moscow’s Ostankino television studios in 1991 and Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, in 1992, form part of Pritsker’s broader collection of “sensographs”—photographs he believed recorded people, figures or phenomena invisible during exposure.
Pritsker, who was based in Alma-Ata—then part of the Soviet Union—began producing the images around 1990. He presented examples in his 1991 book Невидимая реальность (Invisible Reality, or Invisible Reality) and later in На грани миров (On the Edge of Worlds), published in 1997. The photographs have circulated in paranormal literature, but the available material does not establish an independently verified explanation for how the apparent figures were produced.
The Ostankino Photograph
According to Pritsker’s account, he was at the Ostankino television studios on January 23, 1991, in connection with the Soviet UFO program НЛО: необъявленный визит (UFO: An Unannounced Visit). He photographed an area inside the studio, and later reported that a humanoid head and upper body appeared on the developed film despite no comparable figure being present when the photograph was taken.
The image was reproduced as Photo 83 in Invisible Reality. It appears to show a dark, unusually structured head and upper torso, with projections extending from either side of the head. The source material includes both an original scan and a contrast-enhanced version. Such processing can make faint shapes and photographic artifacts more visible, but it can also amplify grain, chemical irregularities and ambiguous patterns. No technical examination or chain-of-custody documentation is provided with the image in the cited account.
Comparison With Pascagoula
Pritsker compared the Ostankino figure with beings reported during the Pascagoula encounter of October 11, 1973, in Mississippi. In that incident, fishermen Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker said they encountered three humanoid entities beside the Pascagoula River. Hickson described the beings as having unusual features, including protrusions in areas associated with the nose and ears rather than ordinary facial structures.
The comparison rests primarily on visual resemblance and on similarities between Pritsker’s interpretation of the photograph and the witnesses’ descriptions. It does not demonstrate a connection between the two cases. The Pascagoula reports themselves remain a contested episode in UFO history, and the Ostankino image has not been shown through independent analysis to depict a living being, an unknown entity or anything originating outside ordinary photographic processes.
The Alma-Ata Image
A second photograph attributed to Pritsker was reportedly taken in 1992 in an empty room in Alma-Ata, now known as Almaty, Kazakhstan. After the film was developed, Pritsker said that the face of a man appeared in the image. As with the Ostankino photograph, the central claim is that the apparent subject was not visible when the photograph was made.
The available description does not identify the camera, film stock, processing laboratory or storage history of the negative. Those details would be important in assessing possible explanations such as double exposure, image transfer, reflections, processing defects or later manipulation. Without access to original negatives and supporting documentation, the photograph’s provenance and authenticity remain unresolved.
Assessment
Pritsker’s photographs are historically notable as examples of late-Soviet anomalous photography, a period when UFO themes received increasing public attention through books, television and informal research networks. Their resemblance to familiar humanoid reports helped promote interpretations involving invisible entities or interdimensional phenomena. However, the cited material provides no independently verified evidence establishing the photographs’ origin, the conditions under which they were created, or the identity of the apparent figures. For now, the Ostankino and Alma-Ata images remain intriguing but unverified artifacts of UFO history rather than confirmed evidence of nonhuman visitors.
