The Internet is full fake news and fake photos - that’s just the way it is, the online world. Here they like to take pictures out of context and write absolute nonsense about them. This is especially obvious in the case of old photographs of post-mortems - a completely common tradition in Victorian times of taking memorial photographs of deceased people, especially children. However, not all old photographs in which people look strange and motionless are truly postmortem.
Quite often, a photo of these plump twins pops up as an example of a post-mortem photograph, because the babies are sitting motionless in front of a rather strange and ominous draped thing. This thing is their mother. At that time, a technique called the “invisible mother” was used to photograph restless children: to keep the child in front of the camera for a long time, the mother, covered with a blanket, sat behind him.
Conclusion: there are living children in this photo.
In the photo we see two identically dressed twins, one of whom seems to have fallen asleep, and the second is hugging him. It is clear that there was no need for a guy of that age to be photographed sleeping and in such an awkward position - unless he was actually dead.
It doesn't look like a post-mortem photograph, and here's why. Firstly, the clothes the child’s father is wearing do not correspond to mourning clothes. Secondly, on the table behind there is a mug with a baby spoon, and the child is wearing a bib - it’s unlikely to be needed dead baby. And thirdly, the child’s hand grabbed the fabric of the clothing. As for the fact that the parents in this photograph do not look cheerful, people at that time in photographs generally rarely smiled, it was not accepted.
Conclusion: the child simply ate and fell asleep.
A young man sits on a chair, his head is slightly tilted to the side and, it seems, is specially tied with a scarf to keep it in the desired position. The eyes look empty and dead, but this effect could also be due to the flash. However, the position of the head and general posture suggest that this is a photograph of a deceased person.
Conclusion: a real post-mortem photograph.
The boy in this photo is certainly alive, but his pet most likely is not. In the Victorian era, dogs were the most popular pets and beloved family members. And when a dog died, some owners took a post-mortem photograph of it as a souvenir. Why is an animal worse than a human?
Conclusion: this is a post-mortem photograph of a beloved dog.
Is this girl dead? Nothing of the kind. Pictured is Alexandra Kitchin (Axie), who was often photographed by none other than Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Dodgson) had many girl friends whom he photographed in different poses and even naked. This sounds horrific to us, but for people of the Victorian era it was not something scary and was perceived as an art form, and not as sexual promiscuity. Little Exie grew up, got married and had six children.
Conclusion: No little girls were harmed in the taking of this photo.
Well, who would believe that the Victorians were so frostbitten as to dress up a rotting corpse and take pictures next to it? And most importantly, even if it were a real photograph, who needs one as a keepsake? Of course, this is, as they say, a “naked fake.”
Conclusion: this is not a post-mortem photograph, but someone’s cruel joke.
Sunken eyes, pale face, calm and cold beauty, white lilies next to the body, taffeta drapery and shoulders decorated with faux fur... Stop. The Victorians didn't have fake fur. This is a contemporary photographic work called "Bridget" from the Deviant Art website, and it looks haunting and dark.
Conclusion: a modern tribute to the art of post-mortem photography.
We see two beautiful girls. One is looking intently into the lens, and the second is sleeping peacefully. She is obviously dead. This is evidenced by the book placed under her back to hold the girl in the desired position, and her arms neatly folded on her chest. And this is mainly indicated by the sadness in the eyes of her living sister.
Conclusion: This is a real post-mortem photograph.
This is a cute photo, the plot of which is clear without words. The Victorians loved gothic and all things supernatural, and they also loved to joke around, including with photographs. What we see here is a fake, but a fake of its time. Everything here is real, except for someone else’s “severed” head.
Conclusion: for the Victorians, death was also a reason for jokes.
They say about this photograph that either the mother is dead (this is not true, the mother is holding the child so that she sits quietly), or a girl in a checkered dress - because her eyes supposedly look strange. The strangeness is easily explained by the impact of a bright flash - in those days it was much brighter than today, and literally blinded. And light blue eyes, for example, didn’t come out very well in the photographs. And retouchers often corrected defects with their eyes covered or blinded by the flash, and because of this, the photo could also not look entirely natural. Why is the mother's face painted over? Well, perhaps someone didn’t like her and didn’t want to see her in the photo... but this, of course, is speculation.
Conclusion: all people were alive and healthy at the time of the photo.
The Victorians widely used flowers as symbols for one reason or another, and flowers next to the deceased are, of course, a symbol. It is safe to say that the girl is dead, since she is lying in bed fully dressed and someone’s caring hands gave her the pose of a peacefully sleeping person. This is a solemn and touching photograph of a beloved child who left his loved ones too early.
Conclusion: This is a real post-mortem photograph.
Here we see five children, four of whom are very similar in appearance, and the fifth - the smallest - looks quite funny. By the way, it’s not a fact that this is a girl: in those days, both little girls and little girls were dressed up in dresses and had their curls grown out. Why they stand so straight and keep their hands at their sides is understandable: the adults told them to behave quietly so as not to spoil the photo. Well, the baby (baby?) overdid it a little...
Conclusion: a children's group photo in which everyone is alive.
The young men in the photo look motionless and stern, and many believe that the guy on the chair is a dead man, and his gloomy friends are standing nearby. But that's not true. The young man sits on the chair so motionless and unnaturally because he clearly follows the photographer’s instructions not to move and look at one point. The trio is clearly tired of posing, which is why they look so unhappy and tense. Well, smiling in Victorian photographs was not accepted, as we already mentioned above.
Conclusion: this is not a post-mortem photograph.
Another clear example of a photograph with an “invisible mother”. The mother, covered with a blanket, holds the baby so that it can be photographed. A dead child does not need to be held, he is already motionless. And this kid is clearly confused by what is happening and looks into the lens with disbelief.
Conclusion: this is a living child and everything is fine with him. And my mother is nearby, although for some reason she put a blanket on herself
Their relatives, on which they captured deceased relatives in lively poses.
For a person of the 21st century, such a tradition seems very scary. After all, we are afraid of any contact with world of the dead. Few people now agree to go to the cemetery again. But before everything was completely different!
In those days, almost no one was afraid. Their graves were placed next to the house in which the deceased lived their entire lives. In the evenings, people walked through family cemeteries - it calmed them down!
After the death of a person, they were not in a hurry to immediately take him away from the house, they talked to him as if he were alive, they touched him and changed his clothes, and this did not frighten anyone.
Photo:
For an ordinary person of our time, viewing such collections of photographs is very unpleasant. But for people XIX century, this was another opportunity to remember your beloved relative.
There are several explanations for why these photographs were taken.
First of all, it was fashionable. Many people simply repeated each other.
And also from photographs it could be carried out family history. Rich people invited the photographer to all significant family events: the birth of children, holidays, weddings, and even when buying a house and car. And the post-mortem photograph seemed to sum up the whole life.
If people didn't have the opportunity to photograph every event, they didn't do it. But to photograph the last moment loved one Everyone tried! Because in those days, family and everyone were taken more seriously.
For the same reason, people left locks and pieces of clothing of the dead as souvenirs.
In addition, when a person was asked about these photographs, he remembered only the best moments of the life of the deceased, and not about the agony before death! 
Photo:
Us, modern people, such traditions seem somehow strange and frightening. But who knows what we would do if each of us didn’t have cameras and phones! Every person has this now huge amount photographs that we try to show off to the whole world. But it is possible that someday this will seem like a very unusual phenomenon.
This story has not been edited. Its spelling and punctuation are preserved in their original form.
These 21 Victorian post-mortem photographs are disturbing. How was it?
The Victorian era was a very "Gothic" period in human history. One of the most exciting traditions of the era was the practice of post-mortem photography (that is, photographing the dead). By today's standards this would be taboo, but at the time it was considered quite normal.
This doesn't mean that these photos are any less creepy to look at today; on the contrary, it probably makes them even creepier. Here are 21 of the most disturbing examples of Victorian post-mortem photography we could find. Attention. #13 might really shock you.
1.) In an effort to produce the opposite effect of "creepiness", such "mementos" (English - "memorable gifts", "souvenirs"), on the contrary, were made to "commemorate" deceased loved ones.
2.) For this reason, many photographers have tried to make their "clients" look alive.
3.) Photographers use various tricks to make their “clients” more life-like.
4.) One of the most common techniques they used was to put people next to their favorite things and creatures (like this man in a chair with his dogs).
5.) Or this girl is here with her toys.
6.) In some cases, photographers tried to pretend that dead man sleeping
8.) Notice how the photographer uses the person's hand to support their head?
9.) Notice the strange position of the curtain behind the boy? It is likely that someone behind her is supporting the boy's head.
10.) This girl was placed sideways on a chair so as to hide the support device.
11.) She looks almost alive in this photo.
12.) Do you see anything strange in the background? This girl is sitting on someone's lap. While the photo was being taken, someone held her in place.
13.) In this photo, the girl standing in the middle is a deceased person. The photographer tried to make her more alive, relying on his teachers.
14.) In other cases, it was not possible to make the “clients” look like they were alive.
15.) It was normal for family members to pose with deceased loved ones for these photographs.
16.) You might say that this is difficult for living family members. The expression of great suffering on the parents' faces is obvious.
17.) One can only imagine what it would be like to pose next to a deceased close relative. At that time, photography was slow and you couldn't move until the photo was ready.
18.) In this photo you can see that the dead girl is in better focus than her parents, this is because they moved when the photo was taken.
19.) There's something about her eyes in this photo.
20.) This one is pretty obvious. [ What? not entirely clear- translator].
21.) I'm not sure which one is dead.
I was almost speechless. The first impression of the photographs is definitely creepy, but the overall effect they produce is very strong. You might think it would be strange for a parent to pose for a photo with their dead child, but at the time such an open display of grief was also considered a sign of spiritual courage.
When it comes to the Victorian era, most people think of horse-drawn carriages, ladies' corsets and Charles Dickens. And hardly anyone thinks about what the people of that era did when they came to the funeral. This may seem shocking today, but at that time, when someone died in the house, the first person the family of the unfortunate person turned to was a photographer. Our review contains posthumous photographs of people who lived in the Victorian era.
In the second half of the 19th century, the Victorians had new tradition– take photographs of dead people. Historians believe that at that time the services of a photographer were very expensive, and not many could afford such luxury during their lifetime. And only death and desire to do in last time something meaningful related to a loved one made them shell out for a photo. It is known that in the 1860s a photograph cost about $7, which is comparable to $200 today.
One more probable cause such unusual Victorian fashion is the “cult of death” that existed in that era. This cult was started by Queen Victoria herself, who, after the death of her husband Prince Albert in 1861, never stopped mourning. At that time in England, after the death of someone close to them, women wore black for 4 years, and over the next 4 years they could only appear in white, gray or purple. Men wore mourning bands on their sleeves for a whole year.
People wanted their deceased relatives to look as natural as possible, and photographers had their own techniques for this. A special tripod was widely used, which was installed behind the back of the deceased and made it possible to fix him in a standing position. It is precisely by the presence of subtle traces of this device in the photo that in some cases it is only possible to determine that the photo shows a dead person.
In this photo, 18-year-old Ann Davidson with beautifully styled hair, in a white dress, surrounded by white roses, is already dead. It is known that the girl was hit by a train, only upper part body, which was captured by the photographer. The girl's hands are arranged as if she were sorting flowers.
Very often, photographers photographed deceased people with objects that were dear to them during life. Children, for example, were photographed with their toys, and the man in the photo below was photographed in the company of his dogs.
To make posthumous portraits stand out from the crowd, photographers often included symbols in the image that clearly indicated that the child was already dead: a flower with a broken stem, an upside-down rose in the hands, a clock whose hands point to the time of death.
It would seem strange hobby The Victorians should have sunk into oblivion, but in fact, even in the middle of the last century, post-mortem photographs were popular in the USSR, and in other countries. True, the deceased were usually filmed lying in coffins. And about a year ago, posthumous photographs of Miriam Burbank from New Orleans appeared on the Internet. She died at the age of 53, and her daughters decided to see her off better world, having also organized a farewell party here - the same as she loved during her life. The photo shows Miriam with a menthol cigarette, beer, and a disco ball above her head.
In 1900, the leading chocolate factory Hildebrands released a series of postcards along with sweets that depicted. Some predictions are quite funny, while others are actually reflected in our time.
Adelia wrote:
I don’t know, but I believe that people close to you should be remembered alive, and not in a coffin.
Here we go...
In the burial catacombs of the Capuchins in Palermo in Sicily, lies an amazing two-year-old girl, Rosalia Lombardo, who died of pneumonia on December 6, 1920.
Rosalia's father, General Mario Lombardo, who was grieving her death, turned to the famous embalmer Dr. Alfredo Salafia with a request to preserve his daughter's body from decay. The burial of Rosalia Lombardo was one of the last in the history of the catacombs. Thanks to Salafiya's embalming technique, Rosalia's body has survived almost unchanged to this day. Not only the soft tissues of the girl’s face remained incorruptible, but also eyeballs, eyelashes, hair, as well as the brain and internal organs.
Since even scientists consider this an incredible miracle, all this time the body of the deceased Rosalia was under...
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Remember “The Others” with Nicole Kidman, that episode where she looks at photographs of dead people? This is not the director’s fantasy at all. The tradition of taking postmortem photographs (postmortem), often opening the eyes of the dead and sitting them in poses familiar to the living, existed for quite a long time. It was believed that it was in posthumous photography that the soul of the deceased would now live. Postmortems are rarely shown to outsiders, but they exist, and their number numbers in the thousands...
What a horror! Not at all. For a long time, plaster masks were removed from the dead and portraits were made. Of course, this was not available to everyone. In 1839, Louis Daguerre invented the daguerreotype, which were small photographs on polished silver. Not very rich people could afford a daguerreotype, but only once, namely after death...
The tradition of posthumous photographs developed in Victorian England, from there it spread to the USA and other countries, including Russia...
There are...
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This selection is not for the impressionable!
It is, of course, creepy to view such collections as a stranger. But for the relatives these were sweet reminders. There are several explanations for why these photographs were taken. First of all, it was fashion - people simply copied each other's behavior.
In addition, personal chronicles could be kept from photographs. The photographer was invited to every significant event in a person’s life - his birth, holidays, when buying a house or car, to a wedding, at the birth of his children. And the post-mortem photograph became the logical conclusion to this...
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Taking pictures of dead children. To a normal person It wouldn't even occur to me. Today this is wild, but 50 years ago it was normal. Mothers treasured cards with dead babies as their most precious possessions. And now, from these gloomy photographs, we can trace the evolution of man’s attitude towards death and towards his loved ones.
Children die slower than old people
A strange and, at first glance, creepy custom - photographing the dead - originated in Europe, and then came to Russia, in the middle of the 19th century, simultaneously with the advent of photography. Residents began filming their deceased relatives. In essence, this was a new manifestation of the tradition of painting posthumous portraits of loved ones and removing plaster masks from the faces of the deceased. However, portraits and masks were expensive, while photography became more and more accessible to all segments of the population.
“I saw one of the early photographs of a deceased child, dating back to the 1840s,” said St. Petersburg photography historian Igor...
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Post-mortem photographs from the Victorian era.
When it comes to the Victorian era, most people think of horse-drawn carriages, ladies' corsets and Charles Dickens. And hardly anyone thinks about what the people of that era did when they came to the funeral. This may seem shocking today, but at that time, when someone died in the house, the first person the family of the unfortunate person turned to was a photographer. Our review contains posthumous photographs of people who lived in the Victorian era.
The sister and brothers next to the dead child look very frightened.
In the second half of the 19th century, the Victorians developed a new tradition of taking photographs of dead people. Historians believe that at that time the services of a photographer were very expensive, and not many could afford such luxury during their lifetime. And only death and the desire to do something meaningful for the last time, connected with a loved one, forced them to fork out for a photograph. It is known that in the 1860s a photograph cost about 7...
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After the invention of the daguerreotype at the end of the 19th century, expensive and not so realistic painting photography began to rapidly replace it. During the Victorian era around family photos Very strange customs have developed. Probably the strangest of them was the tradition of taking photographs. dead people as if alive.
For modern man this practice seems strange and scary. We are afraid of any physical contact with the dead, we hide the fact of the death of loved ones from our children, fearing to traumatize their soul or scare them. And in general, the dead inspire us with horror and fear. But it wasn't always like this.
Photos of dead people from the 19th century
In the 19th century, no one feared the dead. They were buried next to the house in which they lived during their lifetime. Evening walk the family cemetery did not inspire horror, but rather calm.
When a person died, he stayed in his home for some time. They talked to him as if he were alive, they touched him and dressed him, and this did not frighten anyone.
Started in...
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nothing like that
There are no prohibitions on photographing the dead, unlike the taboo on photographing sleeping people. What happened to your friends is just a coincidence.
But you can read how and why they photographed the dead in this article (if you have access to an external device, look at the photographs, they are impressive :-):
http://medinfo.ua/analitic/00014e19108d4e6da849cd24cf6d30db
Why take photographs of the dead or photos that are maddening?
The tradition of taking photographs of the dead as if they were alive appeared in the United States at the dawn of photography. Dead children were especially often photographed this way.
Before being photographed, the deceased minors were dressed in the most beautiful dresses, decorated with flowers, seated in a chair or on a bed, placed in natural poses. Often their favorite toys were placed in their hands. The deceased looked as if he were alive. In many photographs, their living parents, brothers and sisters posed with deceased children.
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The late Victorian era, the mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, left our generations with one of the most eerie legacies - numerous post-mortem photographs of deceased people. This was the time of the first widespread use of photo-making technology, daguerreotype, invented in 1820-1830 by the French Joseph Nicéphore Niepce and Jacques Mande Daguerre, and, characteristically, the invention was announced after the death of the former. The times were not easy, medicine was not nearly as well developed as it is today, mortality - and especially the mortality rate among children and minors - was off the charts. Perhaps that is why then in some countries (for example, in Canada) the practice of photographing not just the dead, but even deceased family members with living relatives became widespread.
Thus, we have received photographs that can cause trembling: dead children together with living parents; a child posing on the lap of a dead mother; like...
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I also join all the comments... like many families, I also found a small case, well, how do I know where everything is, and here is such an interesting suitcase, I looked in, dear mother.... funeral, funeral, relatives. ..well, I’ve seen enough, it was so creepy..
now, many years later, having seen enough of all the mysticism, these photos did not give me peace of mind, I always remembered them, I couldn’t stand it, I talked to my mother and convinced her to burn everything, maybe I did the wrong thing, but no one will look at these pictures, and my grandfather is in the photo during his lifetime, I always look back at my photos, and next to me during his lifetime are my grandfather, godfather, grandmother, and I will always look at these photos, and not the ones with wreaths, in the coffin... Mom and Dad I have obedient ones, they burned them all, I...
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At the end of the 19th century, photographing dead children became a tradition. Cards with dead dead Mothers cherished their babies as the most precious thing they had.
When they photographed small children who died in their families from illnesses, they were often made to look as if they were alive. They were filmed with their favorite toys and even sat on chairs. The kids were dressed in the most elegant dresses and decorated with flowers.
Often parents even tried to smile while holding their dead babies in their arms, as if they had just casually walked into a photo salon with them during their first walk.
Children sometimes drew pupils on pictures to imitate open eyes. There were even photos in which the dead were captured with pets - birds, cats, dogs. What is especially striking is that the dead and living sons and daughters were filmed together. For example, there is a shot where twin girls are sitting on the sofa - one dead,...
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Types of post-mortem photography.
There are several subtypes of post-mortem photography. In some cases, the dead were photographed “as if they were alive.” They tried to sit me on a chair, give me a book, and in some cases even kept my eyes open. In the Burns collection there is a photograph of the girl taken nine days after her death. On it, she sits with an open book in her hands and looks into the lens. If it weren't for the inscription on the photograph, it would not be easy to understand that she died. Sometimes the deceased were seated on a chair, with the help of pillows they were laid, reclining, on the bed, and sometimes they were seated, draping the coffin with cloth.
Other photographs show the deceased lying in bed. Sometimes these photographs were taken immediately after death, sometimes the deceased, already dressed for burial, was laid on the bed for farewell. There are photographs of the body resting on a bed next to the coffin.
Another, most common type of photograph can be called “coffin”. The deceased are depicted in or near their coffins. IN...
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It is believed that during the process of shooting with a camera, not only the external image is captured, but also the human soul. After all, this is one of the the most powerful sources energy. If you direct this force in the wrong direction, then various troubles will begin to happen to the person, and in some cases, death is possible. There is also a ban on photographing sleeping people, since at this very moment a person is especially vulnerable and susceptible to influence. external factors. And very similar to lifeless. Why can't you photograph the dead?
The tradition of photographing the dead first appeared in Europe, and then it took root in Russia. This was especially true for dead children, whom parents really wanted to capture in order to somehow brighten up their grief. That is why the photographs of those times look very elegant, and people look little like the dead. To do this, they were dressed in beautiful clothes or even photographed with living family members.
So why can't...
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In the life of every person there are a number of most important events, around which there is an aura of mystery. These are pregnancy and childbirth for women, engagements and weddings, illness and death for all people. And it is precisely because of the importance and relative uniqueness of each such event that they become overgrown with superstitions and signs.
History of photographing the dead
The tradition of photographing the dead arose in Europe in the second half of the 19th century, and gradually penetrated into Russia. This was due to the fact that the production of photographs was expensive and complex, and also required a lot of time for the preparatory stage.
Not everyone, but only wealthy people, could afford a photo as a souvenir. Therefore, in the event of the death of one of the family members, relatives called a photographer to the house, dressed the deceased in the best clothes, gave him a pose natural for a living person, sat down next to him - and received a memorable photo.
In the case of families from poorer backgrounds...
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