The art of post mortem photography
I recently watched a movie called “The Others” which featured some family photos taken in the Victorian era. What made these pictures special was that all the subjects were dead. Further investigation revealed that taking photographs of deceased members of the family was a common practice in the early years of photography.
In some pictures family members posed with the dead person and some even featured double exposures taken of an actor to give the impression of the loved one’s spirit watching over the family.
Before you go thinking how sick all this is, remember that the death rate among children was extreme and that childbirth and disease claimed many more lives than they do now. So it’s understandable that people were anxious to make use of the new art of photography to keep the memory of loved ones alive.
In some of the photos you will notice that the dead person was made to look as though they were alive. Indeed, in some pictures you can’t tell the difference between the dead people and the live ones.