1. A ghostly apparition appears behind a young woman, who sits reading, oblivious to her spectral companion, circa 1925.

FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

2. Horrifying (and nearly fatal) facial injuries to a German soldier in World War I.

Universal History Archive/Getty Images

3.

A foot of the elephant on the head of the artist, ca. 1938.

ullstein bild / Getty Images

4. Salvador Dali holds up two seashells at his home in Cadaques on the Costa Brava, Spain, 1955.

Charles Hewitt/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

5. A woman wearing a crab hat at the League, ca. 1950s.

Robert W. Kelley/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Photographs have always been used to record unique moments in time. The pictures documented here go beyond the norm by revealing the twisted and sometimes shocking culture of the human race. These photos encapsulate the disturbing mood, revealing tone and sometimes confusing values of yesteryear.