Memento mori

[AJHingel]

<p>I never really thought of the historical period where photos of deceased loved ones was in fashion. The BBC News has on their website today an article of this Victorian passion of photos of loved ones who had died, which seems to have gone out of fashion together with the development of photography. Maybe the selfies have finally beaten death. <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-36389581">See here</a></p>

[colin carron]

<p>Anders, thanks for the link. Some remarkable photos.<br>

Perhaps to us it does seem a strange thing to do, but especially with infant mortality I think that has more to do with the relative rarity of the death of babies trhese days :<br /> http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10001043/rate/INF_MORT<br /> I happen to know a couple who lost a child at birth and they wanted something to remember him by. They had one small poor quality polaroid photo of their baby taken at the hospital. That was a treasured possession. They went on to have two children but their first was still remembered.<br /> So maybe it is just that we are less surrounded by death than the Victorian era people were and find it more shocking.</p>

[david_henderson]

<p>I just could not imagine commissioning or participating in such photographs. But I guess that in some cases there would have been no other pictorial record of what the dead person looked like, and so a chance that the family would forget what they looked like. Fortunately that's less likely today I'd expect.</p>

[AJHingel]

<p>I have no doubt that most people nowadays, and since long, would not make such photos. The ones that are shown are all from the "good" old Victorian times in England. What would be interesting to know, I think, is whether such traditions were common also in other cultures and countries.<br>

Infant mortality was extremely high also in the US, and in other European countries too, at that time, so it would surprise me if such photos were not shot there, like in England. I would suspect that if such photos exist elsewhere, they are hidden away not to challenge contemporary moral codes. I'm sure that, for example, in Mexico, such photos are more common given their traditional attitude to death and corpses.</p>

 

[Andy Murphy]

<p>March 11, 2016 National Geographic has story with images of Toragans in Indonesia who believe the dead are not really dead. Families keep departed for months and years, feeding, conversing with them.</p>

[aplumpton]

<p>Death masks were also sometimes made to capture a person's external likeness and as the basis for sculpture. Anders, thanks for this information. I think your article link shows a similar practice in Australia in the 19th century. Since the early to mid 20th century, with the omnipresence of the camera in family life, there are often many pictures of the living person to serve as remembrance upon his or her death, whereas in the Victorian period there was generally no other record of the person who died. If we didn't have consumer photography beginning at the end of that period the practice would probably have continued longer than it did. </p>

[SCL]

<p>When I was growing up I spent part of my summers with one set of grandparents; my grandfather was a rural physician and surgeon in a remote poverty stricken area where cholera, smallpox and typhoid were prevalent, as were quarantined households. Sometimes I'd go along with him, even though he was semi-retired, he still made calls on remote households, and I saw photographs like the ones linked to in those households. At the time I thought it peculiar, but sort of engaging, in that it gave a broader perspective into what families treasured. Years later at a small family gathering, held in a tiny cemetery in the midst of a very remote corn field, I discovered another interesting photographic oddity - gravestones from the late 1800s and early 1900s with ceramic photographic images of the deceased imbedded in them...unfaded in spite of exposure to the heat and sun for well over half a century. The practice described by the OP wasn't as bizarre as we might think today, as families were much closer and memories treasured, especially because lifelines were much shorter, literacy was much lower, and the church played a much more important role in the local societies. Life was briefly celebrated and the memory of the passing of loved ones of all ages seemed to be much more revered than today. Thanks for bringing back some of those memories.</p>

[Sandy Vongries]

<p>One side of the family was Scots / English and emigrated before there was a United States, the other was German and came over before and after WWI. I can recall coffin photos being taken when I was a boy, but only by the German relatives. I do believe it was / is a cultural thing. I have not found any photos of that type in the family collection, now in my care, which goes back to before the turn of the Century. With the decline of large and extended families, at least here, except for the Wealthy and Famous, there are fewer of the large funerals, more private ones and simple cremations. <br>

Personally, in every case, I would prefer my memories of a living, breathing person to a photo of even the finest example of the embalmer's art.</p>

[wogears]

<p>Back in the early 70s, I met a photographer in Philadelphia who was a very successful pro. As an African-American, he had trouble when he first started out in the 30s. One of the jobs that helped put food on his table was photographing the deceased at Polish funerals.</p>

[DrBen]

Thirty years ago, it was still commonplace for funeral homes in the U.S. south to give the family of a deceased person an

album of photos that included closeups of each floral offering and of the deceased lying in his or her open coffin. Until

around 1960, there were still families, even in urban areas, who held wakes and visits to pay last respects in the home,

not in a funeral home salon.

[JDMvW]

<p>In the very beginning days of photography in the 19th c. it was common to have a "last shot" of a loved one. Sometimes they even took pictures of the family gathered around the recently deceased in its coffin.<br>

for example see http://theghostdiaries.com/memento-mori-victorian-death-photos/ <br>

The inventor of negative photography, Talbot, took one picture of himself as a corpse (I think this is the one: http://www.lukegilman.com/high-on-the-hog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/hppltbyrd1.jpg )</p>

[AJHingel]

<p>As one of the reasons why such memento mori photos were made, was that some people/families did not have lifetime photos of the deceased, surely, nowadays, no living person in the "developed" world will not be in such a situation anymore. Some are photographed now daily.<br>

Another aspect is obviously also that death and corpses, are hidden away from our eyes (and mind) in many cultures - maybe especially contemporary Christian protestent context in Occidental societies. I other cultures, the tradition is maybe still ongoing.</p>

[Norman 202]

Would anyone here photograph a baby of theirs that was, god forbid, stillborn or died prematurely?

[AlRohrer]

<p>"Would anyone here photograph a baby of theirs that was, god forbid, stillborn or died prematurely?"<br>

Absolutely. My youngest daughter who is now 34 years old had a daughter stillborn a week before she was due. This was 8 years ago. The baby was fully formed and beautiful, just not breathing. The hospital cleaned her up and wrapped her in a gown just like a living baby and brought her to my daughter's room, at her request, for our family to spend time with her before she was taken away. It was not something that I approved of at the time but the nurses at the hospital told me that this was not unusual and it helped the mother get through her bereavement. It worked for my daughter and son-in-law. <br>

I still have mixed emotions about it. The hospital photographers took photos of her just like they would a living child and my daughter had one printed and it is hanging on her wall at home. Her other three kids talk about their little sister and know it is her in the picture. My daughter loves that little girl just like one of her living children.<br>

<br>

</p>

[Norman 202]

Very poignant story, Al

 

I very rarely say this but thanks for sharing.

[AJHingel]

<p>"Would anyone here photograph a baby of theirs that was, god forbid, stillborn or died prematurely?"<br>

I think I would, but I would most certainly not show on internet like I keep other family photos out of view of privacy concerns. Nothing can be more personal.</p>

[Norman 202]

I'm pretty sure the Victorians who photographed their dead relatives had no intention of posting the photos on the internet.

[AJHingel]

<p>Phil maybe in painting, death scenes are always seen as interpretations of the feelings of the painter, whereas photography is representing the reality of the dead corps. Two very different things, for most.<br>

<a href="http://www.allpaintings.org/d/35784-1/Edvard+Munch+-+The+Dead+Mother+and+the+Child.jpg">Edvard Munch paintings of his dead mother</a>, and others of his dead sister or the different versions of Picasso's paintings of his dead friend, Casagemas, come to my mind.</p>

[AJHingel]

<p>I agree.<br>

Spilliaert's paintings have some ghostly dimensions to them even when he does not paint death as such (<a href="https://media.timeout.com/images/101527491/617/347/image.jpg">Digue la nuit</a> - which you find in the Orsay museum in Paris) and the surrealistic painter Ensor (<a href="http://impressionistsgallery.co.uk/artists/Artists/def/Ensor/pictures/Death%20and%20the%20Masks,%201897.jpg">Death and the masks</a> - in MAMAC in Nice) , death is painted amongst us all.<br>

Both are from Ostend in Belgium, and both very surrealist and Belgian. They are both very popular among art collectors these days.</p>

[tom_halfhill]

<p>Formal portraits of deceased people, including infants and children, must have been fairly common in the U.S. until at least the 1960s. I found several such photographs among my late father's 4x5-inch negatives. He was a photographer who also worked for a time at a funeral home. These portraits were made at the family's request. Sometimes they mailed these photos to out-of-town relatives who were unable to attend the funeral.</p>

[AJHingel]

<p>Interesting, Tom. Personally I have not found among the many, many old family photos that I have, any such photos.<br>

I wonder, by the way, whether the selfie mania which has spread worldwide does not include a rush for photos of deceased family members. If you believe it is not being done, <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/selfies-at-funerals-tumblr/robert-wabash?format=SLIDESHOW&page=2">look at this slide show</a>.</p>