Where they ghosts?(spoiler warning)
I know the old lady who came late at night to have her portrait redone was a ghost. She died right after the first portrait was taken. I think he wanted her tp take her glasses off because ghosts can't be photographed with synthetic objects.
But, were the 2 main characters ghosts too? They both lived solitude lives, like most ghosts. Only when they were together, did they act alive. Maybe this is a characteristic of ghosts.