An Odd Quilt Photo

...I just got this on Ebay. 

It was billed as a 'Spiritualist Camp' photo of a medium. (As in a clairvoyant.) 

Ummm, okay. 

Turns out it really WAS from a Spiritualist camp. Neal, the Ebay seller at noblesimplicity, wrote me this:

 Yes, it really is from the "Spiritualist's Camp" at Chesterfield, Indiana. It all came in a lot from the Goodwill last year -- about 80 photographs in total. I reached out to the PhD head of the Camp, still in operation today, and he confirmed. The entire lot went to Swann Auction Galleries -- on their Printed Americana fall sale last year -- in Manhattan, but failed to sell (I think due to the pandemic), so I got them back, and am selling individually. I am pretty sure the women dressed in black in your photo is a medium. I'd say due to the content of the lot, that 100% the photo was taken at Camp Chesterfield. I'm glad that you won it and that you love quilts...

During this time period (late 1800s - early 1900s), it was very common for a photographer to pose people in front of a quilt backdrop...like this wool rectangles quilt. ('Brickworks' is one of the pattern names...see why I'd be interested?)

     And that could be what's going on here. An innocent photo of two older people -- granted, one's a medium -- getting their picture taken. (The old guy doesn't look too thrilled about it, but that's normal.) I particularly like the handkerchief tucked into her waistband; my grandma used to do that.

Except...

What are those two light areas hanging around at the top of the photo? Photo damage? Did someone just mess up?  

      Or is it 'orbs?'

     'Haunted' photos often have similar details, by the way. Neal speculated that perhaps he could see faces in the light areas. (I can't...yet.)

What do you think?

Curious minds wish to know.