Why Did Victorians Take Pictures of Dead People?
With the development of photography, people started taking photos of their beloved ones. Among them were dead people. It was known as post-mortem photography or memento mori photographic portraiture. In the mid-19th century, photography was very expensive and was not popular. The first photographs were daguerreotypes. They were created on an expensive silver copper plate. Later these copper plates were replaced by glass, thin metal, or paper. The price of photographs came down and the number of photographers increased. In the 1880s, more people had them or their families photographed. But still, photography remained expensive for low-income families. And the only photos they could afford were post-mortem photos. On those pictures, mothers pose with their dead children. Babies lie in their beds looking like they are sleeping. Siblings stand around their dead brother or sister. There were staged family photos where a dead member was the central subject. One of the reasons for taking post-mortem photos was high mortality. Such diseases as cholera, scarlet fever, measles were very common at the time. And they took the lives of many people, especially children. People just wanted something which would recall their loved ones. For some people, a post-mortem photo was the only picture ever taken. Others wanted to capture their beloved ones for the last time. Taking these pictures was a big family occasion. In the beginning, photographers captured close-ups or the entire body of a dead person. They never included coffins on the pictures. Then they started preparing the bodies to look more lifelike. A dead person could be photographed with his favorite things. Photographers often made a dead person look like he was asleep. Some were supported by hidden structures so that they could stand. People covered themselves to hold dead babies on their laps. Fake eyes were sometimes drawn on a dead person’s closed eyes to look alive. Taking photographs needed long exposures and sometimes they were blurry. But photos of dead people were very sharp as they never moved. These pictures differed much from the photos of living people and were quite surreal. Later, post-mortem photos came out of fashion. People started photographing the dead in their coffins surrounded by relatives.
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Hey guys! Watch my another video with creepy Victorian photos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0KuEC71Bz8&t=
I was obsessed with this concept for years, but I recently watched a Podcast saying this wasn’t true. Photography was very expensive and they only took one picture, so if your eyes were closed or you were making a strange face that was it. Think about when we would get our rolls of film developed how terrible some of the photos were.
Cause Europeans are not so intelligent as they think they are.
If you search up post mortem photo on safari, you can see most of the pictures in the video!
I don’t really think this is creepy, i just think its kinda weird
This is freaking me out..😐😐😫😫
welchen bedeutenden Stellenwert doch einst das Foto hatte!
mehr als nur eine Erinnerung.
damals ging man herausgeputz zum Fotografen und das war ein fast einmaliges Ereignis!
Sad, ,,,,,,😳and a ill creepy,,,but that's just me,no disrespect
Those pictures were haunting
What I don't understand is that why low-income families could only afford post-mortem photos?
So-so sad
This is so sad yet very thoughtful 😭❤️
This is sad
Aww💔
But the real question is, how tf did they die??????
This is sad and all but this is disgusting I could never imagine taking pictures of a dead person. Let alone being in the same room and posing with the lifeless body.
This is creepy but nice….as soon as we modern people hear that our loved ones died, we are sad but get grossed out at the thought of taking pictures of/with our loved one/s
This creeps me out.
GASP i did not khow that😨😐
Who else is here to count the number of NON-POSTMORTEM PHOTOS they use 😂 it's a lot, and THE USE OF THOSE STANDS is WIDELY MISCONCEIVED as standing a corpse, while it was REALLY used to help keep the standing, LIVING-ONLY, person STAND STILL and in the same position FOR THE 15 MINUTE PROCESS OF TAKING THE PHOTO.
Thanks for tomorrow night's nightmare!
They explained it on THE movie "The Others". So creepy.
Such beautiful music.
Anyone know the name of the track please?
😢
I can understand why they did it as there last times together 💕.
Oh gawd😶😮imagine posing beside your dead relative,man I would burst into tears
I saw a YouTube channel say something different about the mother's covering themselves, while holding the baby. Apparently the "live" babies would move while a photo was being taken. So the mothers would cover themselves, and hold the baby still.
Why do people post pics of their dead babies now, in the 21st. Century???
~pictures of dead people are sharp since they never move~
dead person on picture is blurry
Photographer: sksksksks 💀
This is so damn sad.
Man is truly born to sorrow, as the sparks fly upward……just as God has said in the bible.
At first I was really creeped out by this but I imagine that, especially back when children dying occurred more often, that parents just saw it as a way to commemorate their lives with their children or family members. I totally get it now
Anyone can explain me how can they do this.
I mean a dead bodies rigor mortis will kick in a few days, right ?
How can they bend the parts of the bodies to look lifelike.
I remember learning this fact after I watched the movie “ the others “ staring Nicole Kidman . Eerie practice
No No No!!! This is not normal. The memories are enough. Creepy and just plain wrong. I would never want to look at my deceased family members with live people. Just to dang depressing.
Who's cutting onions?. 😭😭😭
This is heartbreaking..why the hell on Earth would they do that .. atleast they should have took those pictures when they are still alive..cause still they would make them pose look like they were alive
Hey guys there is a movie based on this….
It's called THE BRIDE
This video is such a heartbreaking photos. 😢
If they only knew that know we take selfish everyday
Couldn't imagine having to pose with a dead sibling. So sad
So scary
If they're dead, how are they standing?
That's like if my boyfriend dies of a seizure attack I prop him up and take a selfie before I bury him
oof
That’s so sad why are children so small dead ohh wait this is a long time ago not much medicine
When I was watching this my mom called me for food and I didn't want to eat because it reminds me of these pictures there creepy (don't mean to make fun)
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