Post-Mortem Photography

[Vanessa]

Another Halloween weekend thread:

A common practice during the 19th Century and even into the early 20th Century, post-mortem photography provided a family with a memento of the deceased. . .sometimes the only picture ever taken of someone.

Early examples were rather bare bones (if you'll forgive the expression) and the deceased was simply dressed in everyday clothes and photographed in their deathbed.

Towards the end of the 19th Century, a more artistic attitude was adopted, with elaborate wake parlours set up in the home. A large bed was often the center piece displaying the deceased and the room was outfitted with heavy drapes, fragrant flowers and articles from their lives. . .if a child, perhaps toys & dolls. If an adult, favorite books. The deceased was arranged on the bed, wearing nightclothes and covered with bedspreads, photographed to look as if they were simply sleeping.

Small children were often photographed in their parents arms or in a crib surrounded by toys.

Spouses or family members were similarly pictured with the deceased, usually sitting in a chair next to the bed or holding hands.Families who died of sickness or were murdered were often photographed together, lying side by side on a bed.

As the pictures became more and more posed, it was not uncommon for everything in them to be highly symbolic. In this photograph, parents hold their dead child. The father is stoic, the mother holding her head in grief. On the table next to them, different medicine bottles are laid out - they were of no help.

 

[Johnny Turner]

I have a few of these. They are hard to look at, but also hard to put down. Some I have seen are not for the faint of heart.

 

[jake_fink]

I see dead people. :whistling

 

[LolitaHaze]

I love this photography. I haven't collected any, but would love to start. Not a whole lot, maybe just a book full.

 

[Lord Jagged]

*Shivers* hmmmm its kind of macabre isn't it?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've always thought of this as a New England eccentricity -- a lot of these pictures turn up around here in estate sales and such. We even have a few in my family -- the latest of which was taken in 1980 (of my late uncle, now reposing in a Polariod snapshot kept in my mother's kitchen cupboard...)

I always get a chill when I come across them, though -- like I'm looking too closely at something I shouldn't be looking at.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

That's the feeling I get too. What is it that has changed our general feelings about this over the past 100 years or so when this was so popular? 2 world wars maybe?

 

[Hemingway Jones]

.

I had a good friend in college who grew up in a tough inner city community in Camden, NJ; a rough town if ever there was one. She was raised by her Aunt and each time someone was killed as a victim of street violence, they took their photo and placed them all in a photo album. All of the matriarchs of the community had one. It was a way of holding onto their memory. I imagine the same sentiments went into these.

Those photos certainly are macabre and certainly beautiful, and sad.

Thanks for posting them.

 

[Vanessa]

I've always thought of this as a New England eccentricity -- a lot of these pictures turn up around here in estate sales and such. We even have a few in my family -- the latest of which was taken in 1980 (of my late uncle, now reposing in a Polariod snapshot kept in my mother's kitchen cupboard...)

Still very popular in the South, as well. Pictures are taken at wakes, of the surviving family members and usually of the headstone itself.

That's the feeling I get too. What is it that has changed our general feelings about this over the past 100 years or so when this was so popular? 2 world wars maybe?

I think it's just that photography has come so far. It's so prevalent nowadays. Most people have cameras hooked up to their computers, one on their cell phone. . .pictures in their ipod. How many pictures did you take on your last vacation? How many do you have of 'nothing' - just everyday activities that you snapped a shot of? How many did you delete off your digital camera before you even downloaded them? People may have 500 pictures of themselves taken by the time they're 5 years old.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Yeah I think that's a factor too. The sheer novelty of photography back then which gave them the ability to capture an image in a relatively short time which they could keep all their lives. And the fact that photography was a special occasion kind of thing done by professionals. Most folks in the 19th century probably would have had only a handful of photos taken of themselves or family members.

 

[Rosie]

Wow, this is both beautiful and sad. It does like as though it's something I shouldn't be seeing but, not in a bad way. Now that you mention it, I did take a picture of my dad's vault last time I visited his grave. I couldn't really tell you why. I just did.

 

[MissQueenie]

Sanitatization of Death in Modern America

I think the reason these photographs are so deeply uncomfortable for modern viewers to look at stems from our separation from and sanitization of death. Most Americans have only fleeting encounters with death and the dead over the course of their lifetimes (excluding people like doctors, morticians, abulance drivers, soldiers, etc, etc.) -- when a loved one dies, the body is whisked off to a morgue almost immediately. The removal of the corpse is paramount, the first act of those remaining behind. The body is then "processed" until it mimics a living being once again, or at least one in suspended animation -- free from decay, from stench, from bloodlessness. It is sanitized, made "clean" for the grieving family to interact with and view it before committing it to the ground.

We no longer have prolonged contact with the dying, and certainly not with their earthly remains. We've grown culturally squeamish in the face of death.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Queenie makes some excellent points here. And thats -if- the family even interacts with the 'cleaned and sanitized body' at all.

My experience regarding death might be a bit different, then most. Pardon the long post, but i wrote this for my own blog trying to explain to people.

I grew up in a rather odd culture that is hugely old fashioned and religiously trapped in the Russia of the last tsars. Not Russian Orthodox, not Russian Jews, but something altogether a bit different. There are about 5000 of these people still in Los Angeles, where they settled after leaving Russia just before the revolution. There are other small colonies around the world.

Before the service, the closest female relative actually helps dress the body, and depending on the strictness of the beliefs of those closest, ,the blood removed in the enbalming process might be put in the casket, out of view, because law requires enbalming, but gods law (in their opinion) says to go back into the earth whole, so putting everything that was there, close enough, is a compromise.

Funerals are rather long affairs, with the casket (open) sitting in the church all night, accompanied by members of the close family, who literally stay up in shifts all night. There is a service that night, when people arrive, they walk up to the casket, and offer their respects to the family, who are sitting in two rows on either side of the casket, knees basically hitting it. Singing happens until there are no 'singers' (yes thats a semi official thing) left.Everyone (including the dead) wears white or the lightest possible colour. White being the colour for mourning and funerals.I could go into what the outfits actually look like, but lets just say stylized Russian peasant outfits, but in a solid colour.

After the service is over and people gradually leave, family remains. The volunteer kitchen staff leave food and chi (tea) going for those staying. Sometimes one of them stays to help serve. The casket remains open all night.

The next morning, another service happens, more singing, and then everything procedes to the cemetary. The turnout for an 'average' member of this society tends to be in the 100's of people, 1000's might show up for a particularly well known or 'spiritual leader' type person.

At the cemetary there is another service, casket is still open. Then final goodbyes are said to the body, and the lid is lowered. After lowering the casket into the grave, family members toss a small handful of dirt in, before the men finish the job with shovels.

Then everyone goes home to shower and change clothes (clothes that have been near a body are ritually unclean) and go back to the church for a meal and more speeches and singing. The meal is their communion, ie they eat a whole meal, not just the bread and wine as communion. Every service there ends in a full 5 course meal, even just the sunday normal service.

This differs greatly from most 'american' funerals I have been to, which are very much less intense and less focused on the knowledge that the loved one is really gone. When you spend hours on end sitting there looking, you realize that it really is just the body, the person is long gone. Yes, its very traumatic if you arnt used to it, but it makes you face things, instead of being able to sort of mentally gloss over it all and pretend they have just gone on holiday. People brought up with this tradition, see bodies from the time they are toddlers, carried by their parents up to pay respects to the families.

I have a very hard time saying goodbye any other way, the times freinds have died and it was a 'normal' funeral, or I didnt get to go to a funeral at all, I sensed a huge lack of closure in things.

 

[up196]

He photographs the dead

 

[The Wolf]

modern practice

My wife is a nurse and told me that if a baby is stillborn the nurses will clean him/her, swaddle and take a photo to give to the parents. It was found that it helped the mother to have some memory of a child she carried but didn't get to raise.

Sincerely,
The WOLF

 

[Gray Ghost]

I have seen a few but most that I have seen are photos of dead outlaws. Such as Jesse James, Bonnie and Clyde. Seeing love ones posed, gives me the creeps.

Gray Ghost

 

[Lauren]

I think these are fascinating and not at all creepy. I especailly agree with Queenie and Neecerie as to Death and the modern views of death. I think it's actually quite interesting- the Victorians take baby pictures, a few when alive, then a death picture. Line them all up and it's the lives of your family. Fascinating. Thanks, Vanessa, for this thread!

 

[Naama]

I love those! I have been interested in Post-Mortem Photography for a long time. I think it's really fascinating and I don't find them creepy in anyway. I just think it's a bit strange when the dead where fotographed as if they where still alive, like a picture of a boy who's eyes where painted open in the photograph....

Naama

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

My wife is a nurse and told me that if a baby is stillborn the nurses will clean him/her, swaddle and take a photo to give to the parents. It was found that it helped the mother to have some memory of a child she carried but didn't get to raise.

Sincerely,
The WOLF

There is a whole site devoted to photos of stillborn children that I have run across in the past. I would never ever wish to be down on a practice that has undoubtedly helped a lot of mothers/parents, but some of those photos were truly hard to look at. One of those "I wish I hadn't followed that link" moments! I can see why you might want a photo of your own stillborn child but I'm not sure why you'd want such a picture online for all the world to see.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

There is a whole site devoted to photos of stillborn children that I have run across in the past. I would never ever wish to be down on a practice that has undoubtedly helped a lot of mothers/parents, but some of those photos were truly hard to look at. One of those "I wish I hadn't followed that link" moments! I can see why you might want a photo of your own stillborn child but I'm not sure why you'd want such a picture online for all the world to see.

Maybe this is part of the reason some people feel somewhat creeped out by these photos? It's like looking at a very intimate part of someone's life that we have no business looking at. Just like the vintage photos people leave behind of their lives that can be found at times in antique shops, they are interesting to look at, but I would not care to own them.