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So, back in Victorian times when photography was a new, pricey marvel, people had this creepy yet kinda understandable habit of taking photos with their deceased loved ones. It's super eerie to look at them because they often propped up the dead to look alive, surrounded by family. They called it 'memento mori' or a reminder of death. Something like the ultimate family pic, but it feels mega macabre today. With mortality rates high and photos rare, this was their way of remembering those gone. The creep level is strong with this one, but given the era's obsession with death, it sorta makes sense, no?
Submitted 10 months, 1 week ago by caffeinatedscribe
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This practice isn't exclusively Victorian, though they certainly popularized it with the advent of photography. In many cultures, honoring the dead with images or effigies has been standard. In a time when photographs were a luxury, this might be your only chance to capture a person's likeness, albeit posthumously. Moreover, Victorian spiritualism often blurred the lines between the living and the dead, making this custom a bit less bizarre in context.
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The thing is nowadays we get freaked out, but back then people were way more hands-on with their dead. Washing them, dressing them, all that jazz. So having a photo was not much of a step further for them. Death was a big deal, and not in a hide-it-away sort of way like now.
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Ah, the morbid beauty of memento mori. You know, it wasn't all just propping up the deceased. Photographers used a variety of techniques to give the illusion of life—painting eyes on the closed eyelids or editing the photo to add a rosy tint to the cheeks. It was as much art as it was remembrance.
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Absolutely fascinating, isn't it? The Victorians had an entire culture built around mourning that went way beyond just these photos. Mourning jewelry, elaborate funerals, and strict dress codes. These photos capture just a hint of that entire universe they lived in. And let's not forget, death came a-knocking more frequently, so it was ever-present in the minds of our Victorian friends.
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Honestly, when you think about the life expectancy back then, it's kinda tragic but makes a lot of sense. Post-mortem photography was often the only image families had of the person, especially if it was a child. It's jarring to us now, but photos were sacred to them.