Tuesday, September 21, 2010

A macabre addition...

Have you seen the movie "The Others"? Are you familiar with the Victorian tradition of post-mortem photography? Well, this is the new addition to my mourning line: a box full of post-mortem pics.

I did not know of this tradition, but I was quick on researching it, and I find it fascinating. We see pics as something so natural that we do not consider the money that cost producing a single picture years ago. So much money that families did not spend it in capturing images of the living. After all, they did see their family everyday. But when Death took a loved one, not only they did pictures of the deceased, they posed them as if they were sleeping. I have seen many pictures of parents with their dead babies, and there is a lovely beauty and melancholy to them...

Most of us have Victorian homes, and these pictures were definitely part of them. Maybe a forgotten box could be found in an attic or at the bottom of grandma's trunk...

5 comments:

Kim Gillian said...

They're great! I have heard of this before.
-Kim :)

Jenya said...

Wow. Fascinating history lesson. That's really interesting.

The Old Maid said...

Cool idea! I've heard about this tradition although there are no such pictures in my family;)

onbeingaminimum said...

Now this is unusual!

miniaturista said...

Las fotos y los recuerdos dan romanticismo.
Un abrazo
maite