Victorian Post Mortem Photographs

[pastafreak]

Not to everyone's taste...these photos are haunting and mesmerising...and it's so difficult to see where the living end,and the dead begin.
I've read that though this was a common way to remember the dead,there are fake photos,..I'd assume some of these are. Still,a very curious practice.

http://www.viralnova.com/post-mortem-victorian-photographs/#previous

[tonyav]

Very strange those Victorians, pasta.

[wolf63]

Some of the comments indicate that some of the photos may be fake. Weird!

I was actually hoping to see photos of actual post mortems. :-/

[retrocop]

Nauseating. :-(

[marval]

Very interesting photos, but a little odd to say the least.

[retrocop]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Not to mention Macabre and that is an opinion from someone who has seen more than enough dead bodies in my lifetime.

[pastafreak]

Why nauseating,retrocop? The Victorians lived with and dealt with death in a different manner than we do. And this was often their only way to have a reminder of a loved one...along with lockets that held the deceased's hair.

[hc4361]

Indeed, pasta. Photography was very expensive so people didn't have many or any photos of their loved ones so this was a last chance to have one.
Death wasn't something tidied up by other people in a neat and sanitary way as it is today. Very often the body would remain in the family home until the day of the funeral after being laid out by family members

[Baldric]

I remember my G/Mother died 1955 and my G/Father in 1960 and the Coffins being in the Front Room until the day of the Funeral. My Mother died in 1984 when I was 33, all very different, straight to the Funeral Directors from the Hospital.
As an ex Serviceman I'm aware I am responsible for more than one death and I no more wish to be pictured with them than I do with any of my long gone Family. Times change. As a Victorian I would most likely have been pictured with one foot on the chest of my enemy and holding up the firearm that killed them, with a caption that said they were the last of their kind etc.

[islasmum]

They are very creepy, and I only got up to no.9!

[flump1]

Blimey, they are so moving. So sad.

[bednobs]

I haven't looked at the photos
i have post-mortem photos of both my children, and don't find it odd per-se. What i do find disconcerting is the pictures where the dead people are made to look alive

[pastafreak]

I hope the photos have not offended or upset you in any way bednobs. If so,please accept my apologies.
I think the reasoning behind the (realistic) posing was to supply a memory of the person as they were in life. This may have been the only opportunity to capture a family together,as photography was not yet affordable or common.

[bednobs]

not at all pasta :)

[askyourgran]

Really sad to see them posed that way, especially the little girl standing/propped up at the end of the row of children, obviously dead.

[Retrochic]

Viralnova is notorious for fake photos, I think most of these are,especially the ones where the eyes of the corpses are open.

[andy-hughes]

These photographs feature in the film The Others with Nicole Kidman - the photographs show the servents who she believes are still there at the house looking after her family.

No spoiler - watch the film, it's really clever.

[woofgang]

Retrochic, it was known for eyes to be painted in on the negative over the closed eyelids.

[Ken4155]

As has already been said, not everyone could afford photographers in Victorian times so this practice must have been confined to the few who could. I think the images are hauntingly powerful, some even beautiful, though there is grief in many an eye.

[andy-hughes]

To our modern eyes, this seems seriously creepy, but as advised, the Victorians had a very different approach to death, mainly because they lived a lot closer to it than we do now.

[Mamyalynne]

Whilst I realise that Wiki is as likely to be wrong as any site, this article includes references to the fact that stands etc were not used post mortem but rather during long sittings to keep the sitter still.

There are also links within to more learned studies.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-mortem_photography