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Jun 4, 2016 · Photographs of loved ones taken after they died may seem morbid to modern sensibilities. But in Victorian England, they became a way of commemorating the dead and blunting the sharpness of...
Dec 8, 2012 · What is Victorian Post Mortem Photography? In the Victorian era (1837-1901), in most of Europe and America, photographing the dead was common practice; an expensive service provided by photographers as a special way for families to preserve the memory of their loved ones.
Oct 27, 2017 · Post-mortem photography was a popular mourning practice in mid-19th century Britain and America, reaching its peak around the 1870s. While it may seem macabre to us today, portraits taken after death were an important way for families to remember lost loved ones.
- Democratizing Grief
- A Culture of Death
- Reconsidering The Dying
Whereas before only the wealthier classes who could afford to commission the luxury of an expensive, painted portrait or sculptural likeness of their family members or friends, the invention of this first publicly available photographic process enabled those from lower socio-economic backgrounds to afford sit for a photography session, in order to ...
In the nineteenth and twentieth century, death was everywhere – particularly for the Victorians. The advent of rapid urbanization and industrialization leading to increased pollution and overcrowded cities, combined with poor knowledge of hygiene and practices in a pre-germ theory society, meant that prior to 1860, the spread of diseases such as sc...
Although these images seem unsettling or morbid, it’s important to remember the context they were created in. Created within societies who saw mourning as a form of memory that kept alive the bond and relationship between their dearly departed, these photographs became highly valued possessions to those who commissioned them. The act of memorializi...
Dec 17, 2021 · The photography session was done either at the deceased’s home or where the photographer lived. Adults were mostly photographed in coffins and sometimes, they sat on chairs.
Different traditions did begin to emerge in Europe and the United States. In the US, families began to take photos and put them in boxes or mantels that would help remember the dead at home. In Europe, photographs were sometimes publically displayed to memorialize the deceased to others.
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Mar 13, 2019 · We must learn to embrace death even if we don't understand it. It is an inevitable and photography can help us come to terms with what it means for us.
