Ransom Riggs
Only the Creepiest Photos Ever Taken
by Ransom Riggs - May 6, 2008 - 11:33 AM

Mourning is a strange thing, and different cultures deal with it in vastly different ways. But there’s a reason people associate the Victorians above all with morbidity and death, and one of them is memento mori like this:postmortem2.jpg
The fact is, postmortem photographs like this were taken more than any other kind of photograph in the Victorian era — especially in the U.S. — and in many cases these carefully-arranged, meticulously staged pictures were the only ones ever taken of their subjects. From Stanley Burns’ book Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America:

These photographs were a common aspect of American culture, a part of the mourning and memorialization process. Surviving families were proud of these images and hung them in their homes, sent copies to friends and relatives, wore them as lockets or carried them as pocket mirrors. Nineteenth-century Americans knew how to respond to these images. Today there is no culturally normative response to postmortem photographs.

So, given your lack of a “culturally normative response” to these pictures, dear reader, we advise the faint of heart among you to click elsewhere.

“Child in Coffin at the Death Room”
child.jpg

From PBS.com: “This portrait appears to have been taken in the formal parlor of a family home. The parlor, or “death room,” was an important part of funerary rituals for most of the 19th century, the place where deceased family members were laid out for final respects. This image dates to c. 1890-1905, a time when many funerals were still taking place at home. Soon, however, death would begin to leave the home and by end of World War I most Americans will receive their health care in doctor’s offices and hospitals and most funerals will take place in funeral homes. As the funeral “parlor” came into vogue, the home parlor was rechristened a “living room.” A 1910 issue of Ladies Home Journal declared the “death room” to be a term of the past.”

Also, did you notice the strange silhouette on the right side of the picture? That’s the photographer’s assistant, holding the casket lid open for the shot.

brothers.jpg
For me, though, more intriguing than the dead are the living who pose with them — usually stoic and reserved, it’s the little bit of emotion their faces betray that make these portraits so compelling … and heartbreaking. (Above and below: siblings with their brothers.)

brother.jpg

Another common theme in Victorian-era postmortem photography was the staged scene of mourning, which was often highly melodramatic, like this one, “Orphans at Their Mother’s Grave”:
grave.jpg
The photograph above also reveals another Victorian preoccupation: spirit photography. Likely a double-exposure featuring an “actress” portraying the childrens’ mother, this style seems to me a highly theatrical way to deal with one’s grief.

newspaper.jpg
Another style was the photograph in which the dead were posed to look alive — the first in this series, at the top of this post, is an “eyes-open” example. The use of props like this man’s newspaper was less common; perhaps it was included to distract from the unnatural rigidness of his hands, among other giveaways.

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Comments (182)

  1. Wow. We sure look at death differently these days. These photos remind me of the ‘death photos’ from the movie ‘The Others’. Creepy yet fascinating

    posted by JaneM on 5-6-2008 at 11:52 am

  2. I love these posts! Keep them coming. Does that make me creepy?

    posted by Carmen on 5-6-2008 at 12:09 pm

  3. JaneM – I was just thinking the same thing about The Others. These pictures aren’t too bad except for the first one. Somehow having a dead person’s eyes open staring at you is eerily creepy… like they can see you.

    posted by CK on 5-6-2008 at 12:10 pm

  4. Strangly people still actually do this. About 8 or so years ago I worked in the photo-lab of a local grocery store. The majority of the pictures we got were hunting photos with deer hanging from trees being gutted or photos of Granny at the funeral. Very weird. The worst one, and I’ll never get it out of my head, was one day trying to color balance a print. For those who don’t know, there is more to it than just sticking the film in and hitting print. Depending on how long the film sat around or what the light was like when the pictures were taken there is color correction to do, people can come out with a picnk or yellow or blue cast to them. Anyway I couldn’t get the baby in the picture to look any less yellow, then I realized he was dead. He was not in a coffin, just on a piece of black cloth. I had thought he was sleeping but when you looked clost there was something just not right about his face. So sad . . . not to be selfish, but I wish the people who brought that roll in had warned us, I was only 18 at the time and totally unprepated for something like that.

    posted by Em on 5-6-2008 at 12:14 pm

  5. Jane and CK –

    Yes, The Others uses these photos to great effect — probably the scariest part of the film!

    posted by Ransom Riggs on 5-6-2008 at 12:27 pm

  6. That first kid seem like he’s staring at me. So creeped out.

    posted by Tricia on 5-6-2008 at 12:30 pm

  7. @Em:
    I used to work in a 1-hour photo lab in a small town drug store. We routinely processed photos for the local police. I once saw a series of photos taken by the police of an elderly gentleman who had apparently dropped dead in his house. A couple of days later, in a non-police roll of film, the same old man lying in his casket.

    Both sets of photos creeped me out. I could understand why the police would want the photos they had, but I didn’t know why anyone would want photos of the body at the funeral. Now it makes a little more sense.

    posted by Ohne Hosen on 5-6-2008 at 1:14 pm

  8. Actually, there was a similar custom involving painted portraits of deceased loved ones.

    Because painted portraiture and photography were both very expensive then, it’s not uncommon to find that a portrait from that era any sort occurred more often when a family member was deceased, especially if the individual was young. Unless the family was truly rich or in some way connected to an artist (photography or paint), families really couldn’t afford to create these sorts of stopped-in-time, tangible memories until after someone had passed on to keep them, in some small way, alive for the family.

    Following this note, a museum not too far off from my hometown boasts a life-sized painting of a little boy that was done from his momento mori. They have a copy of the small photograph near the painting, and in both his eyes are open.

    It always gave me shivers.

    posted by ACute Angle on 5-6-2008 at 1:37 pm

  9. Last night, in my History of the Beatles class (Best. Class. Ever.), my teacher showed us a copy of the National Enquirer that he’d kept from the week John Lennon was killed. The cover had a picture of John in the morgue on it.

    Part of me didn’t really want to look at the picture – I would have much preferred to picture John alive in my head – but the other, morbid, part of me looked anyway.

    I know it’s not quite the same thing as these photos, but it was just kind of funny that this post came after seeing the picture last night.

    Creepy! Love it!

    posted by Melodye on 5-6-2008 at 1:45 pm

  10. stunning. great post.

    posted by heather on 5-6-2008 at 2:22 pm

  11. Yes, the first picture creeps me out, but the girl standing with her dead little brother breaks my heart. The look on her face hints at a betrayl. It’s as though she’s angry with the photographer for thaking the picture in the first place.

    Thanks for the post.

    posted by Bethany on 5-6-2008 at 2:39 pm

  12. Sorry, I meant betrayal.

    posted by Bethany on 5-6-2008 at 2:40 pm

  13. My extended family in Utah often takes photos at funerals and viewings. I admit, I have been photographed standing next to my grandmother’s open coffin. Definitely felt kinda weird doing that… I found it most difficult to decide what kind of somber expression to have on my face, however, after the photo was taken I looked at it only to see my sister smiling happily.

    Not my thing.

    posted by Anne on 5-6-2008 at 2:44 pm

  14. I’m going to have bad dreams tonight, I know it!

    posted by beth on 5-6-2008 at 3:08 pm

  15. My grandmother takes pictures of people in their caskets. Then she shows them to everyone for months afterwards and says things like how “beautiful” they looked.

    They never look beautiful. They never look like themselves. I don’t get it at all.

    However, I also don’t get touching, hugging and kissing people in their casekts either. To me, once they are dead, the body is really nothing. Seems wrong to touch and hug all over it.

    posted by Karen on 5-6-2008 at 3:30 pm

  16. Photographs back in the day were very time consuming. Children and other folks would literally fall asleep while posing. Many postmortems of children are actually sleeping children. Caskets are pretty much the only way to tell if the subject is actually dead.

    posted by Christy on 5-6-2008 at 4:18 pm

  17. My Grandparents had a son born with an enlarged heart who died of pneumonia when he was 6 mos old. They hadn’t had his picture made yet so the had him embalmed and took the family to a portrait studio for some family pics…yikes!

    posted by Amber on 5-6-2008 at 4:23 pm

  18. Let’s not forget the most famous of the memento mori:
    *EDIT* Crap! It won’t let me post an image link. Oh well, it was the poster to Weekend at Bernie’s.

    posted by Austin on 5-6-2008 at 4:32 pm

  19. OOh…very creepy and yet fascinating at the same time. Recently, my wife was asked by her cousin to take some photos of a dead relative (the cousins’ mother) in her coffin. She needed them for some crazy reason and didn’t bring a camera…who could forget that!? Anyway, we were totally creeped out by her request and were left scratching our heads on that one…

    posted by Eric on 5-6-2008 at 4:42 pm

  20. While photos “back in the day” did take longer to expose than today, in most cases it wasn’t long enough to fall asleep. Some photographic methods developed in the mid 19th century would have measured exposure time in seconds rather than minutes. So, if there was a lot of doubt about whether a child was sleeping or dead, the type of picture could lend a clue.

    However, the biggest clue is the numerous small children photographed who are alive. If the exposure time was so long that a child could fall asleep, movement during that time frame would make a very blurry picture. If you’ve ever tried to get a small child to sit still for a picture, you know this is quite a task. Given the number of clear pictures of living children taken during the era of the death photos in Ransom’s article, I’d have to argue that you could probably make some good guesses about living status without a casket in the picture.

    Though the casket undoubtedly helps. :)

    posted by kate on 5-6-2008 at 4:56 pm

  21. Before photography they would make a plaster cast of your dead face!

    posted by DNA on 5-6-2008 at 5:39 pm

  22. Before photography they would make a plaster cast of your dead face!

    posted by DNA on 5-6-2008 at 5:39 pm

  23. I’ve seen some of the ones with the eyes painted open…very sad. Some people couldn’t afford a photo until it was too late to have one made of a living person.

    posted by Jennifer on 5-6-2008 at 6:06 pm

  24. I don’t think they are creepy, just sad.

    What creeps me out is how we now insist on making our dead look like they are just sleeping, using plastic molds with sharp points to keep the eyes closed and make the mouth hold that weird smile, then slather them with so much makeup it’s hard to recognize them.

    posted by Pam on 5-6-2008 at 6:35 pm

  25. It doesn’t creep me out in the least bit. VERY fascinating though

    posted by Melissa on 5-6-2008 at 7:10 pm

  26. Taking photos of the dead at funerals is still quite common in the South, especially among blacks and (traditionally) low-class whites.

    I was shocked and fascinated when I learned of this (though Southern, I come from a different milieu), and approached a few publishers about doing a “coffee table book” of collected photos.

    posted by mike on 5-6-2008 at 7:19 pm

  27. the third one looks like tay zonday

    posted by andrew on 5-6-2008 at 8:46 pm

  28. When I was about 11 years old, I remember browsing through the book shelves in our city’s public library. I came upon one old ragged book…it was black with no cover or title. When I opened it, I got the shock of my young life. It was filled with pages and pages of these memento mori photographs. I never forgot that moment.

    posted by Kevin on 5-6-2008 at 9:15 pm

  29. fasinating!

    posted by Leah McChesney on 5-6-2008 at 10:13 pm

  30. In all of my years in wedding photography, I have never seen how disturbing that is…

    posted by Furious Photographers on 5-6-2008 at 10:23 pm

  31. Exposure times grew shorter through the (19th) century. Civil War photographs are posed, views of where some battle had occurred, or photos of those killed. Studio portraits were posed using neck braces to help hold the subject in position, hence the regular “grim” expressions. The actual exposure could be frelatively short, but the set-uop, including focusing would still take minutes rather than seconds.

    posted by Gary Sargent on 5-6-2008 at 10:25 pm

  32. good lawdey Im glad times have completely changed.

    posted by Death Quiz on 5-6-2008 at 10:36 pm

  33. As I read it, I expected the last sentence to read: The use of props like this man’s newspaper was less common; perhaps it was included to distract from the unnatural rigidness of his hands, among other dead giveaways.

    posted by mr goathead on 5-6-2008 at 11:03 pm

  34. It’s definitely a tradition among blacks to take pictures of the deceased either at the viewing or at the funeral. In my family, it’s not strange to stumble upon such pictures in an old photo album. When my great-grandma died, my mom sent my brother and I to the church early so that we could get pictures of her before everyone arrived. I always wondered why we kept pictures like that, but I guess since I grew up with it I never really questioned it. Also, we bought a picture of MLK, Jr. in his coffin that we bought as a souvenier in Tenn.

    posted by Carmen on 5-6-2008 at 11:14 pm

  35. Death simply is.
    It’s not scary unless you don’t understand which world you are living in.

    posted by thetruth on 5-6-2008 at 11:16 pm

  36. Keep in mind that photography wasn’t an everyday event like it is today. Families could find themselves surprised by the death of a loved one, and, finding that they had no photographs of the recently deceased, want to capture their image before they were gone forever.

    posted by Tim on 5-6-2008 at 11:25 pm

  37. I am an Antiques Dealer and am intriqued by most things from the Victorian Era. I have only once found one of these photos at an Estate and the subject was a mother with her infant. Both died during Childbirth and the photo was sad, but so typical of this type. Of course, I sold the photo on eBay. It was interesting that the family members who sold me the photo had no idea who the woman was, yet it was carefully preserved with all of the family’s mementos. Thanks for this insightful article and for the references. janieruth.com

    posted by Jane on 5-6-2008 at 11:26 pm

  38. I don’t believe that these are all real.

    posted by sachin on 5-6-2008 at 11:50 pm

  39. As odd as this is – it still happens today. My sister is a videographer and amongst the “normal” weddings, pageants, etc that she films, one of the more common requests she gets is filming funerals. Her clients will often request that she film not only the service, but the body in the casket.

    posted by ginauf on 5-7-2008 at 1:09 am

  40. great commentsand great post. When i was at my great grandfathers open casket funeral, i said to my dad, who was standing next to me viewing my grandfather,” hey, even he’s dressed up nice” (i was 6 or 7)
    The image of my father laughing out loud in front of his grand-father in law casket is one that still makes me laugh….

    posted by micah b on 5-7-2008 at 1:12 am

  41. “Before photography they would make a plaster cast of your dead face! ”

    Before plaster they kept your head.

    posted by Tyler on 5-7-2008 at 1:17 am

  42. Very good,I like those pictures.

    posted by liusichi on 5-7-2008 at 2:56 am

  43. I wouldn’t say these kinds of photos are creepy, they’re just ridiculous. The one with the brother and sister is really beautiful, though.

    When my grandfather died, my grandmother wanted us to take pictures of him in the coffin. I think it’s because she really likes mourning. I’m not a big fan of these photos…

    Btw, I’m from Europe, so I guess it’s not just a US thing?

    Oh, and your Captcha really sucks. /:

    posted by XR on 5-7-2008 at 4:04 am

  44. There’s a great book called “Wisconsin Death Trip” by Michael Lesy (Pantheon publisher) containing these sorts of photos as well as small snippets from newspapers about macabre and/or strange happenings in the midwest around the turn-of-the-century.

    posted by tahlula on 5-7-2008 at 7:15 am

  45. well, i wouldn’t call that creepy… just informative to some extent. but not really creepy

    posted by wahooha on 5-7-2008 at 7:24 am

  46. @Carmen you are correct in the african american community me being a member. @ funerals we take tons of pictures I’m always asked to photograph passed away relatives. It could also be a generational thing among us I don’t see many of the younger ones asking for pics at funerals.

    posted by CAL on 5-7-2008 at 8:12 am

  47. That girl sitting next to her dead brother looks a little fishy. Do you think she had something to do with her brothers death? I want the investegation reopened. And the set of twins , I couldt imagine what that alive brother is feeling. The look on his face is horrid.

    posted by Jason on 5-7-2008 at 8:24 am

  48. The subtext of this article seems to be that we look at death the correct way today, and a “theatrical” way of dealing with grief is some creepy artifact to be looked down upon. (Using theater to deal with emotions? Shocking! What’s next? Music?) But I’m not sure that our look-the-other-way attitude toward death is obviously better. It actually seems more irrational — we have a superstition that talking about death openly is dangerous.

    posted by Brian on 5-7-2008 at 9:40 am

  49. I once saw a scan of a newpaper article. The article was about the funeral of a hip-hop record company executive, who had been killed. His body had been placed behind the wheel of his yellow Lamborghini Murçiélago. His eyes were open and bulging. The contrast with his black face made the white eyeballs stand out even more.

    The car was sold on ebay.

    posted by PeterJohn on 5-7-2008 at 11:40 am

  50. The practice of post-mortem photographs was also common in Europe, in some parts until well after the second world war, even to the present day. My girlfriend’s grandmother, for example, finds it perfectly acceptable to have a framed picture on display of the hearse that carried her dead husband’s corpse to his funeral. There were also pictures taken of him in the casket. This was 1995.

    posted by Toon on 5-7-2008 at 1:51 pm

  51. In my family they take pictures of the deceased and store them in an album no one ever looks through. When I was six I took a picture of my stillborn baby brother to class. My teacher called my parents and I was told never to bring anything else to class. I never knew why kids in my class got so scared. I thought he looked cute. Then two weeks ago I’m now twenty I was looking through my friend’s cell phone and saw pictures of her deceased grandma in a coffin..I dropped the phone. I see what is soo creepy now.

    posted by Christy on 5-7-2008 at 2:02 pm

  52. These break my heart! :(
    Esp. the ones where the siblings are made to pose with their dead brothers. I can’t imagine.
    I have to agree with Tim though; back then photos just weren’t so common. I can see how a mother would want some picture, ANY picture to remember her baby.
    Aw, so sad!

    posted by mrs.djs on 5-7-2008 at 2:14 pm

  53. Those are very disturbing photographs. That stuff is just plain weird.

    posted by Rick on 5-7-2008 at 7:34 pm

  54. its true, these kinds of photos are still taken in many parts of europe. i lived in portugal and when my brother died (about 8 years ago), my mother took dozens of photos of his grave decorated with flowers. i always thought it was strange, but at least she didnt take pix at the funeral. if i had to look at a photo of his open casket right now, i would be absolutely hysterical. i was a kid when it happened and was left traumatized. the (living) siblings in these pix must have suffered so much. i wouldnt want such painful memories documented like that.

    posted by mar on 5-7-2008 at 8:00 pm

  55. Most of this photographs were take to keep a good memory alive.

    The dead people within this pictures are portreyed as if they would be alive.
    This was necessary, because in the old days people had not so many photos of them, so some of the dead people were photographed for the first time to keep the mamory about them alive.

    posted by Cute Doreen on 5-7-2008 at 9:10 pm

  56. “Orphans at Their Mother’s Grave” appears to be part of a stereogram, aka a 3-D picture. Do you have a link to the complete card?

    posted by ham on 5-7-2008 at 10:06 pm

  57. Dozens of pictures like this are taken every day in North America! It is no longer a thing of the past, in fact, there are tons of websites where you can see pictures. I know several people who keep pictures of a dead loved one.
    Yes, nowadays, when you have a stillborn child, they are lovingly washed and dressed and posed for family photos. For parents whose angels went straight to heaven, it’s often all they have – a whisper of a broken promise, a shattered dream. It’s not creepy. It’s a way to say, “You were here. You meant something to me”.

    posted by Marion on 5-7-2008 at 10:54 pm

  58. Did any notice the left leg of the little girl in the coffin. It looks like a toremented face at the bottom.

    posted by justsumcracker on 5-7-2008 at 11:58 pm

  59. waw! i’m scared. lol. they are creepy. and gee, i had to see it at this time,it’s almost midnight. lol, i do get scared easily. :(

    posted by randiss chinny on 5-8-2008 at 10:38 am

  60. This doesn’t seem creepy or sad to me but a part of life. We filmed my grandfathers funeral for members of the family that were in active service overseas and weren’t able to make it. It seems a similar thing to this, a way of saying this person has died and we want to remember the person that was alive.

    posted by Binx on 5-10-2008 at 10:22 am

  61. I think that my family still has a pic of my grate-grandfather in a coffin. Used to be popular in Russia.

    posted by Larisa on 5-13-2008 at 3:41 pm

  62. someone earlier posted about feeling awkward having to decide on what sad expression to make when being photographed by a relative’s casket- although slightly different, this reminded me of when I visited Dachau and a family was photographing their small son next to the original crematory ovens, making him pose over and over again to look as sad as he could. It is interesting that a place associated with death would be treated as a postmortem photography without a corpse.

    posted by cheryl on 5-14-2008 at 8:32 pm

  63. Oh wow that is freaky. I wonder if people still do that today?

    posted by Jenny on 5-18-2008 at 10:25 pm

  64. Ive never really thought of this practice as odd, my family come from Macedonia, (Im not quite sure this is a custom, but it has happened in my family) and when someone died, photos were taken at the funeral. They are kept in an old envelope but ive been instructed to never look at them. I guess its a final keepsake, like a baby’s tooth to remind them of childhood, except the photos remind them of a life. Ive never really thought of this as morbid, just something to hold onto as a memory.

    posted by eva on 5-23-2008 at 8:02 am

  65. Very interesting. Whatever brings people comfort, I’m all for it. For me, personally, it would be too sad to have a “dead” picture of a loved one. But, to each his own. I think the pictures in the story are beautiful because they show so much history. The types of clothes, etc. Like they said, it could be the only picture they would unfortunately have of them.

    posted by Dianne on 5-23-2008 at 10:54 am

  66. Manticore of Love:
    I had a wonderful movement this morning. Pitched the biggest loaf.

    posted by Fromulated Momulated on 5-29-2008 at 4:00 pm

  67. In 1978 a friend and I were in a class along with a young man. During a break he started showing pictures of his baby girl. There were many pictures. The last two showed her in a tiny white coffin.
    He never said a word about her death, only how beautiful she was (of course we agreed, she was perfect), how old she was and her name. Because he never said anything, we didn’t either. I always wondered if he ever accepted her death.

    Then about 1980, I was visiting friends in Coos Bay, Or. An elderly woman wanted me to look at her picture album. It was filled with people in caskets, sitting in favorite armchairs, even one fishing. It was very detailed with birth and death dates, names and occupations, and very creepy. Many had their eyes open.
    She was the last of her family and did not have anyone to talk to about them. I spent several hours talking to her and had nightmares for many years after. When she died, her friends refused to complete the album.

    posted by TONNIE STEELE on 5-29-2008 at 10:43 pm

  68. When I visited my grandparents as a child, there was a large 11×17 approx. photo of my uncle in his coffin. He had been crushed in a coal mine cave in. The b&w photo had been hand tinted, (his cheeks were slightly pink.) His head was a little misshapen by the accident. My grandma said it was common to make these photos back in the early years of the 20th century. Having that in the bedroom with me didn’t seem weird; it was actually reassuring to know he was there waiting to greet me each morning.

    posted by Charles Francis on 6-3-2008 at 2:52 am

  69. check out this wonderful and sad site containig photos found and contributed all over the world where most of the persons depicted remain nameless…
    quite few memento mori there too…

    it’s skarabej (dot) com

    posted by nick on 6-3-2008 at 3:48 pm

  70. As a wedding photographer I could not even fathom doing PM photography! I don’t see why this was so popular! Did they not take portraits of them before they passed away?

    posted by Fort Myers Wedding Photography on 6-5-2008 at 7:05 pm

  71. You know i always thought my great-grandma Lucy was wierd…all our funerals she took pictures of the bodies, and HUGE familly pictures with the casket, no one told her no as she is the oldest person alive in our familly at the time (she passed away at 89 years of age in 2000) She didnt display them except the one of her husband on her bedside table….Always thought her strange but this makes alot of sence, mabey it was somthing she learned from older people in her familly? It’s really facinating. Thx for posting these with the history.

    posted by Nicholi on 6-12-2008 at 2:36 pm

  72. “The Others” used mortuary photographs from the Stanley Burns “Sleeping Beauty” work cited in the article, the photographs in it are true memento mori. The work itself is highly prized but was only briefly released, used copies sell on Amazon for $350.

    posted by Jenna on 6-18-2008 at 1:33 pm

  73. I have been looking all over the internet for pictures like these! Ever since I saw them on The Others I have been facinated. But I guess I am a morbid sort of person.

    posted by Jenna on 6-23-2008 at 3:39 pm

  74. memonto-mori book:
    photoeye.com

    posted by Adam on 6-24-2008 at 5:02 pm

  75. I remember when my mom passed, one of her friends wanted to take my pic with her in open casket… I was weired out but in no shape to protest so she snapped away. The roll of film (yes film) she developed all came out fine except for the few she took that day of me & my dead mother, I was happy as i didn’t want that day to be any more lasting then it already is.

    posted by Thecoolone on 6-25-2008 at 3:33 pm

  76. Wow, these are amazing. Like a few other people, I saw pictures like these on The Others. They astound me.

    posted by Manda on 7-3-2008 at 5:03 pm

  77. Thing like this should no be online.

    posted by Norma on 7-7-2008 at 8:57 pm

  78. Wow… these are really interesting. A little morbid, but interesting. I agree with one of the other comments above, that people in that era probably realized at the death of a loved one, that they didn’t have any photos of him/her. Hence, taking a “last” photo.
    A very different time, indeed.

    posted by darla on 7-9-2008 at 9:23 pm

  79. Christy- where did you get that notion?? I have studied vintage photography and PMs for several years, and I must say you are in error. Many Ps are not children sleeping! Photography was expensive, so do you think Mom and Dad would allow their child to snooze when the photog is ready to snap? Very doubtful.

    posted by Kerry on 7-23-2008 at 11:31 pm

  80. I have pictures of my Father in his coffin, as I wanted to remember my last look at him. (Died, 10th Aug, 2002)
    I worked as an undertaker for some years, so this is nothing unusual to me..

    posted by Reaper on 8-8-2008 at 7:56 pm

  81. When I was about 13, I was looking through my great-aunt’s photo album and got my first encounter with memento mori; pictures of her brother, who died when he was four years old. Her family was very poor, living in rural Arkansas, so when he died they took the pictures because they didn’t have any. I still remember the contrast of his black and white suit and the purple fabric he laid on. It was kind of creepy…

    posted by Kate on 8-17-2008 at 2:13 am

  82. This brings to mind the book Wisconsin Death Trip published in the 1960′s with photos fromt the 1800′s.
    An interesting discussion of this type of photos.

    posted by daniel on 8-19-2008 at 9:06 pm

  83. this kind of photography is shown in The Others movie starring Nicole Kidman

    posted by jhen on 8-20-2008 at 11:10 am

  84. I have an aunt who takes pictures at wakes. To watch her do it, it’s just as if she’s taking pics at a family reuinion..just a “normal” thing to do. I was freaked out a bit when she brought her camera when my mother passed. But, we just bit our tongues.

    posted by Donald on 8-30-2008 at 1:09 pm

  85. BTW, “The Others” is playing on cable now and I, too, googled “book of the dead” to find this post.

    posted by Donald on 8-30-2008 at 1:11 pm

  86. wow

    posted by Lovli on 9-30-2008 at 6:47 am

  87. My grandmother has a book that in the family we call the “dead people book.”
    Pictures of her parents, brother, husband, and several other family members.

    posted by Sherry on 10-6-2008 at 10:31 am

  88. For those fans of post-mort pics [and especially Victorian death photos], please be advised of the following: full rigor mortis sets in at 12 hours. Keep in mind these Victorian folks had no cell phones or even reliable home phones. So in order to call in a professional (or even struggling “artist-professional”) one might have to wait for several days for one’s relative to receive photographic attention.

    Full Rigor Morits – - Twelve (12) hours!

    That means if Jr. died at noon, by noon the next day he’s as stiff as a board.

    How (if someone can debate, please do so) can all of these photos – and I have been to numerous other ‘Victorian Death Photo’ sites – how can all of these people be dead when their limbs looked relaxed, their facial muscles are relaxed, “sleep looking”, etc. I think a lot of them aren’t of the dead, but of the living.

    PS – For those not afraid PLEASE look at the ‘creepy’ kids face. His eyes were obviously painted in after the fact (a common practice back in the day). He is sadly very dead and he doesn’t look like he’s very happy to be in that state. Very sad, robust little boy with an (I am assuming) untimely end to his busy little life.

    posted by Babi on 10-28-2008 at 10:43 pm

  89. some people in my family still do this and put the pictures in their family albums. it always gave me the shivers.

    posted by jesskat on 11-6-2008 at 5:35 am

  90. I just feel sorry for the kids who posed with their dead siblings!

    posted by rhonda on 11-10-2008 at 10:28 pm

  91. The reason so many of you are “creeped out” is modern America has become so “sanitized” from things like death and dying.

    If you have ever lived in a 3rd world nation or in some very poor areas of this country where medical care is almost non-existent or prohibitively expensive, death is very much a part of everyday experience.

    The American people are spoiled pulp rotten. Just one nationwide pandemic like the flu of 1918 would bring us all back to square one in our forgotten familiarity with death.

    posted by paul on 11-15-2008 at 1:03 am

  92. i noticed that i saw at least one of these in ‘the others’
    the baby in the casket.

    posted by tattoosofships on 1-22-2009 at 9:00 pm

  93. Because my son was only one when his dad died, I took a couple pictures of the casket and all that for him to look at later if he wants.

    posted by Sarah in CA (formerly just Sarah) on 1-23-2009 at 1:27 pm

  94. Death is just as natural as life. Really nice pics for the time.

    posted by kennesaw on 2-5-2009 at 7:40 am

  95. Taking pictures of loved ones in their caskets is natural to me. When my grandfather passed away when I was 10, my grandmother took pictures of him in his coffin. When she passed away in 2006, my husband was nice enough to take a couple of her for me. It’s not like we look at them often…they are kept in a small private album. It’s more of a posterity thing.

    posted by Rach D on 2-17-2009 at 2:42 am

  96. i tink these pic.s are sooooooooo fake! and there not freaky at all! this sux!

    ly all! bye bye

    from blahblah

    posted by simone on 3-1-2009 at 11:18 pm

  97. Read upon rigor mortis….the body WILL not stay stiff…it dies relax again somewhat.

    posted by Cass on 4-15-2009 at 12:25 am

  98. re: rigor mortis….the stiffness of rigor mortis only lasts for a few hours, and then the body completely relaxes again…it is a vital part of the “decomposition” process…and one that is a vital clue in the study of forensics. Most of these photos will have been posed long after rigor mortis hsa come and, at least, partially, gone. I know people, two, who have had stillborn children, and have had photo’s taken of their deceased children. It’s really all they have….I don’t find it creepy or weird, especially if done tastefully, just incredibly sad. Better to honour the love for the child…..in my humble opinion.

    posted by sandie on 5-1-2009 at 12:01 am

  99. A few people have mentioned how photography wasn’t very common “back then,” and I think there’s another related point to be made:

    Death was.

    Up until very recently (if you take the long view of human history), just living past your first birthday was sort of a major accomplishment.

    People just DIED all the time, and I think it led to the living being much more stoic about the whole thing. In our modern era, the big “death event” of your childhood is when a grandparent passes away. In the 1800′s, by the time you were ten, you’d most likely buried all of your grandparents, a few siblings, at least one parent and about half of your friends. We’re more freaked out by death now because you’re expected to live at least 80 years, and hitting 100 isn’t even the death-defying stunt it once was.

    I don’t know if I’d call these “creepy.” “Eerie” seems like a better word. The sibling photos are possibly the most haunting photos I’ve ever seen. But once you get past the visceral shock, you think, “Well, it’s just death. Same thing that’s waiting for me just down this road.”

    posted by Clint on 5-7-2009 at 3:49 pm

  100. Since I saw the movie The Others I was fascinated by these kind of pictures. Although some are disturbing, most of them are peaceful and beautifully done.
    Here you can find a lot more of them:
    paulfreckerdotcom
    boatswaindotnl

    posted by Michael on 6-2-2009 at 3:35 pm

  101. in our place, taking pictures at funerals (including the coffin, among others) is just like taking pictures at any other gathering.
    nice post anyway.

    posted by daisychain on 6-11-2009 at 1:12 am

  102. Re: people keeping severed heads back in the day – I don’t think this was common practice, but it’s always kinda amused me that in a Medieval verse romance called The Squyr of Lowe Degre the heroine keeps what she thinks is the embalmed body of her murdered lover at the head of her bed for seven years before he triumphantly returns and she finds out obviously it wasn’t him at all! That raises so many questions…

    posted by Gwan on 7-8-2009 at 6:28 pm

  103. inre: “Before photography they would make a plaster cast of your dead face!”

    um, i beleive those are called ‘death masks’ and the practices of making such things go back into ancient times even…

    but even creepier than these stories were the ones ‘floated out’ by the tabloids back in the 70s and 80s saying that JFK survived his assassination –

    “he” was even shown being pushed around in a wheel chair by Jackie, who had since become Jackie-O — now those were creepy!!

    posted by DixonSteele1on1 on 7-12-2009 at 2:23 pm

  104. I probably shouldn’t have looked at this right before sleeping. Oh man, this makes me glad I’m in wedding photography.

    posted by Chris Lin on 7-19-2009 at 5:39 am

  105. Though in modern american culture these momento mori photographs and portraits are no longer traditional and are generally considered morbidly bizarre.. I can’t help but find an obscure fascination with them. It’s odd because I used to live in a very old house in upstate new york and over the years I had found several extremely aged photographs- mainly of children. I could pinpoint where they’d been taken through out the property and I can honestly say, as a child I was genuinely freaked out by the house let alone the distant stares of the children that’d been photographed. Though I sensed an absence in their faces and composure it had never occurred to me that it had once been common to photograph the dead as if they were alive. Of course many years later I’d gained knowledge of this old tradition.. and was completely shocked when I realized that the children here more than likely photographed dead.. in my living room nonetheless.. wow. Creeped out and intrigued.

    posted by Tracy Bugenhagen on 7-22-2009 at 2:39 am

  106. Hey, did you know this type of photography was also in the movie The Others with Nicole Kidman?

    Just kidding. Seems like people don’t really read other people’s comments, but are in a rush to post their own, thinking they know something no one else knows. Consequently, I just read 900 other people mention The Others with Nicole Kidman.

    posted by Greg on 7-28-2009 at 12:13 pm

  107. The only one that seems outright creepy to me is the very first one; having the eyes open does almost seem like the dead child is staring at you from beyond the grave. The last one, of the old man, is odd; but the others break my heart. Especially the ones of the children. As a photographer, and friends with many photographers, I’ve seen some very touching photos of deceased relatives and I don’t think they’re creepy if done with love and respect. There’s even a charity that does special photography for families who lose their babies and I promise you, it’s not creepy but it will make you cry. http://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/

    posted by FlyButtafly on 8-2-2009 at 1:28 am

  108. There are pictures of dead soldiers from the Civil War on a National Parks website. They are kind of creepy, but at the same time, very moving…

    posted by Penny on 8-10-2009 at 6:10 pm

  109. I believe I read something about the first picture a while ago. The boy was being displayed in the window because the whole house was being quarantined.

    My family has no memento mori photos- but my grandmother has a decent sized wreath of human hair hanging in an old shadowbox frame in her house. Every time a family member died, a flower would be made out of their hair. Rather ghoulish, in my opinion.

    posted by Kevin on 8-12-2009 at 3:10 am

  110. I was a CNA for 6 years and had to deal with more dead bodies than I care to remeber. I actually thought about going into mortuary science for awhile. Death itself doesn’t bother me but these pictures still creep me out

    posted by Audball on 8-13-2009 at 10:49 am

  111. Although this do make me uncomfortable, I do think when people close to me I would want a picture of them.

    Also, when babies are born and die most parents have “memory boxes” which include pictures of the babies, many times after they have passed. It’s an important part of getting through the tough time.

    I don’t get why this is so horrible to some people. What is the difference of taking a picture of a sick person in the hospital and a dead person. Either way, great article!

    posted by Heather on 8-21-2009 at 11:33 am

  112. I think pictures like this are amazing. Maybe I am a bit more morbid than I should be, or been desensitized by life after dealing with so many deaths with in my family. Still, it gives you a great insight on how death was dealt with back in the times of our great-grandparents, and Grandparents.

    On a side note, there is a funeral parlor in Kentucky where a few of my families funerals were held that record a video of the service if you wish to pay for it.

    posted by Kacy on 8-28-2009 at 6:04 pm

  113. I have one relative who faithfully comes to the funeral with her Funsaver and snaps a photo of the deceased. When her brother, my grandpa, died we let her go in by herself and have the casket opened for her to take the photo. I remember being freaked out by it then, and I never want to see those photos. I like to remember my loved ones alive, not dead.

    However, I do understand the need for these photos back then, and I also think organizations like “Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep” do an amazing service for grieving families.

    posted by KerriD on 8-30-2009 at 8:04 pm

  114. Very interesting read and picks. ever since I saw the others I have been fascinated by this strange custom.

    posted by Jeff on 9-1-2009 at 9:44 pm

  115. I don’t have an issue with death, going to funerals or graveyards don’t creep me out. But I can’t why anyone would want to take post-mortem pictures in this day and age. We have regular access to cameras, it’s not terribly expensive. I want to remember my loved ones alive, not dead. I don’t want to remember someone’ funeral. Even with stillborn babies, isn’t it better to remember the wonder of pregnancy not the grief? It just seems morbid to me.

    posted by Aleia on 9-2-2009 at 12:27 am

  116. And does anyone else feel the compulsion to refer to the last guy as Rasputin, or is that just me?

    posted by Aleia on 9-2-2009 at 12:31 am

  117. There is nothing creepy about it at all! When my father died (just two years ago) I was alone with him when he died and my gentle care of him didn’t stop. I continued to talk to him and hold his hand long after I knew he had passed away.

    Later at the funeral home I took a last photo of him as he lay there. It was lovely to see him at ‘peace’ after he had died a harrowing and painful death. The photo helps me remember how peaceful he looked instead of remembering how pained he had looked before.

    These are beautiful photos and show a touching blend of both grief and love. Thank you for sharing.

    posted by Bella on 9-7-2009 at 11:27 pm

  118. In Germany, the Nazis would routinely photograph captured Resistance Fightervictims at all stages of torture and eventual execution.
    The Gestapo would then use the most horrible pictures to show to suspected Resistance Fighters. Their reaction nearly always gave them away and they in turn became the next set of tortured photos.
    This technique was so successfull that Hitler ordered special EinsatzCommando to be set up just for the purpose of capturing foreign politicians – their torture photos were then to be sent to all members of foreign governments as a warning if they didnt give in.
    The project was stopped when Rudolf Hess flew to England, told the British, and security was increased by ten fold.

    posted by anders raalway on 9-20-2009 at 10:26 am

  119. People deal with death in their own ways. Different cultures and regions do different things. My family always take pictures of the dead at their funerals—and we are not black OR low-class. (Low class? Really?) It’s just another life passage that we record, just like a birth, a wedding, or a graduation. It was sort of trendy during the Victorian era to pose the dead; it’s not trendy any more. But I and my family will continue to take pictures at funerals, and they will go in the album with the other pictures—it’s life, and it’s death, and it is not creepy or wrong. It’s just what we do. It’s not like we are taking pics of crime scenes and violence, just memorializing a loved one.

    posted by Amy on 10-8-2009 at 10:10 pm

  120. Saw a program featuring this on TV the other week – the ways some of the dead were posed for pictures in victorian times was quite amazing – interestingly they all had a very peaceful look on their faces

    posted by Tim Driver on 11-4-2009 at 6:35 am

  121. 2 things – The first is my brother-in-law told me his co-worker had a miscarraige and she and her boyfriend posed with the dead, purple, not-human-looking-fetus. He said they were smiling in the photo. Utterly creepy.

    Also all the people on here talking about how death is so inevitable, check out TED.com and find the talk Aubrey de Grey gives about the genetic work being done that could lengthen human lives by 100 to 1000 years in the next few decades. Stay healthy!

    posted by Rob on 11-4-2009 at 6:46 pm

  122. I’m only 58, but I remember in my rural Alabama childhood and youth seeing a corpse laid out for visitation in the parlor at home and folks taking photos of the dead in their coffins. Those were still considered normal practices for the reasons discussed above. Going back as a young adult, I found it cathartic at my grandfather’s burial when we pallbearers, after struggling to haul the coffin through the rough country cemetery, were called upon to fill in the grave. We all picked up shovels and worked up a sweat on a cool, crisp, sunny December day as we filled filled my grandfather’s grave with dirt.

    posted by Bubba on 11-6-2009 at 8:56 pm

  123. It took me a while to read this article… About 3 months from when I originally seen it.

    Because the first time I opened it up, all I seen were those eyes glaring at me… I couldn’t sleep for a week.

    Now Im glad I read the whole article. I feel better. Strangely.

    BTW the men dressed in black holding the casket open. Creepy.

    posted by Chrystani on 11-17-2009 at 12:35 pm

  124. I just had to post because the captcha phrase was “yesterday carcass” How oddly appropriate for this article.

    posted by Adam on 12-8-2009 at 2:29 am

  125. Is it creepy that I find these sort of images fascinating?

    To the modern mind it is a very very odd thing to have done, but if you look at it in the context of the age – it makes perfect sense.

    Photography was a new ‘fad’, and it would have been unlikely that the family had many, if any, images of the deceased person. So by having a carte de mort taken, they have a keepsake of their lost child, brother, mother, etc..

    posted by Alex from Suffolk on 12-9-2009 at 4:33 am

  126. hoo! i was a lote. it was a much go to the loth!

    posted by mk on 12-9-2009 at 8:37 am

  127. Marion, thank you for your kind words for Angel Parents. I understand those photos–I have six angels myself and only have ultrasound photos of three of them. But 10+ years ago I was at a relative’s funeral when another family member whipped out the camera and started taking photos. I left immediately, appalled. I was told that because it was a suicide and his parents couldn’t bring themselves to attend the viewing (neither could I, but I stayed outside the room and greeted others who were arriving) the pictures were so that they could see it later on if they chose to. But I think that “lower class Southern” that was mentioned in a previous post played into that…I’m a Yank and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a death photo in my family.

    posted by shirleyfeeney on 12-11-2009 at 2:03 am

  128. My grandmother took photos of her hubby when he died. It never struck me as particularly weird, although I did ask why she had done so.
    Not really sure why people find this so creepy.

    posted by Mary on 12-26-2009 at 4:59 pm

  129. I had a student who lost her newborn baby sister (she was born with medical problems). She was understandably very upset and I talked to her a lot during that time. One day she brought in a stack of photos of the baby girl at the funeral – death photos.

    I didn’t know how to react, she very insistently showed me each and every one.

    Later on that same year she did a power point presentation for the class that included a stack of those same death photos. A few of the kids left the classroom, I was a first year teacher at the time and had no idea how to deal with it. I still don’t.

    posted by Kathleen Kaufman on 12-30-2009 at 1:18 am

  130. i dont think its creepy at all… you have to understand that mortality rates where very high in those time… they weren’t fortunate enough to have the healthcare we are so fortunate to have… in addition people still do it to this day – my family has pictures of my deceased grandmother – its the last time you’ll see them and people have different ways of grieving… all in all normal and very interesting!

    posted by hilda on 1-2-2010 at 8:36 am

  131. I find these photos fascinating and the reasons for them make perfect sense to me. I do not find them creepy and the ‘low class’ comment was in itself low class.
    Thanks to those who posted other sites or links to them.

    posted by Angela on 1-4-2010 at 10:27 am

  132. My husband always kept a photo of his baby brother who died at two months. He said it sort of comforts him. When we had a stillborn at 6 months, he took a photo of him too. Seeing that picture causes loads of pain for me, but he won’t delete it. To each his own I guess.

    posted by julie on 1-6-2010 at 3:46 pm

  133. Why is this ‘creepy’ when the custom of the open casket with a body expensively worked up by morticians is still taken for granted in the US?
    Given that habit, it is odd that Americans have stopped photographing it — they record everything else, including their sex lives.
    Coming soon to a FaceBook page near you.

    posted by Tim Poston on 1-12-2010 at 10:33 pm

  134. What draws us to such things? Morbitity from the past is my viagra

    posted by squirrel on 1-18-2010 at 9:23 pm

  135. Regarding the Victorian Death Photos, in many cases, photography still wasn’t as prevalent as it is today. For many families, if a young child died, a photo was taken, and it was often the ONLY photograph they would ever have of the child.

    posted by Steve D. on 1-26-2010 at 1:47 am

  136. These pictures are disturbing to say the least. I can’t believe anyone would want to look at them let alone post them.

    posted by Shannon on 2-9-2010 at 2:03 pm

  137. In response to an earlier commenter who noted that rigor mortis sets in 12 hours after death and that a lot of the bodies looked relaxed and natural, I have an explanation to your query. As you said, it sometimes took days to get a photographer to the house for the photos. 48-72 hours after death rigor mortis disappates because the body starts breaking down aka decomposition. The bodies were usually kept “on ice” literally, to hold off the outward appearances of decomposition but the body would still be internally decomposing. That is why the bodies (not all, but most) look so relaxed-as though they were merely sleeping.

    posted by sandyra on 2-13-2010 at 8:41 pm

  138. I remember as a child being at my grandparents farm in Nebraska during the early 1960′s in a small upstairs bedroom as a terrible thunderstorm rolled in. The storm made the room become dark..even with a small light in the roomturned on. My grandmothers ” Hope Chest” which is a Cedar Chest was in the bedroom and being a curious child I opened it up to see what all was inside. I found linens and other things but at the bottom , low and behold, I found 8″X10″ black and white pictures of my great-grandfather in his casketdressedin his Sunday best. I had never seen a dead person before or a casket.I had never seen this man in the picture before so I took these pictures downstairs and asked my grandmother about them. They were photos of her father. Afterwards, my father was very angry and cruel with me, he was terse, and let me know I had been extremely rude and insensitive to my grandma for even bringing out these pictures and asking questions. I felt bad and ashamed. I did not know I had done anything wrong. I was an innocent kid. I will admit the pictures were rather spooky looking to me for I was looking at the pictures with thunder and lightening occurring outside and very little light inside the farmhouse and it was during the late afternoon and looking North out the upstairs bedroom window, the storm clouds were almost black in color outdoors. I had quickly took the pictures back to the upstairs bedroom with the cedar chest and put them away where I had found them but I felt very frightened for I was alone in that room with those pictures. What if there were ghosts watching me ?? I felt very sad for my great-grandpa who had died and my grandma. I also felt I could no longer talk about these pictures for I did not want to be rude or hurt anyones feelings. If grandma cried, I never knew it. My dear grandma ( she was my favorite) has since died and my mom has all of her posessions in her basement. I do not remember seeing this cedar chest at moms home. It has to be there. I have not inquired where this cedar chest is at, but I think I will for I know these pictures will still be inside and I know no one else knows they are there. My maternal grandfathers moher , when he was around 5yrs old, she died at the age of 40 yrs of an illness on their old homestead outin the contry..far from towns. They did not have cars in those days…it was a wagon with a team of horses. She was kept at the family home for several days. The family then took her body to a nearby cemetery and laid her to rest. I have a black and white photograph of my paternal great-grandfather standing by her grave which had heaps of dirt on top..no sod…and floral arrangements and a wreath. I later heard through another family member who’s father was my great uncle and he was about 6 yrs old when great-grandma died.. that after they buried her they returned home and took all her clothing, bedding , sheets, mattress,etc and took them down into a canyon near the home and burned them. After that, all the young children in the family believed there were ghosts in that canyon and it was haunted and they stayed far away from this area of land.
    My father,when his dad whom he had been very close to died of a heart attack and my father was present when this occurred , well, my father took a polaroid photo of grandpa in his coffin.This photo he kept in his dresser drawer. Its a way to hold on to that person you love.
    In 1993 I learned I was pregnant with a baby girl. I was elated!!! I always wanted a girl and I looked forward to the day of her birth. Well, I lost her when I was 5 months pregnant. I was immediately hysterical and so despondant,so depressed, so full of grief. My husband appeared not to grieve at all and was not even with me at the hospital when I lost our daughter. He later admitted he had never wanted children..which is not what he told me when we married and he said he never wanted children ever again which made things worse.( We never did have anymore children and I was very angry, very depressed for a very very long time and had much grief counseling. Don’t think I did not think of leaving him many times. I was older and my maternal clock was ticking) At the hospital after she was born dead, the Labor and Delivery staff took pictures of my little tiny baby girl. They even put a premie cap on her head that said Daddy’s Girl. They took several photographs and asked if I wanted them. I was so traumatized, crying, upset beyond belief and could not be comforted, that I did not care if I even lived after that great loss.
    My world, I felt had ended.They asked me if I wanted to see the photographs or if I wanted them and I told them I did not want to see them nor did I want to keep them. The staff told me they would hold on to them for 7days and if they had not heard from me by that time they would dispose of these photographs. Grief consumed me. My husband and I did name her. We also wanted to have a small private funeral for her so she would be “remembered” and I would a least be able to visit her grave when I felt the urge. I went home around 11:00PM on the same day I delivered her.
    The next day, I was frantically calling the Labor and Delivery staff on the phone to let them know that I desperately wanted my baby girl’s pictures. I missed my baby terribly. I still could not be consoled and was constantly in tears. I had not held her in my hands very long at the hospital.( Remeber, she was just 5 months along so she was very tiny and fit in my hand.) I had little time with her. We did have a funeral and we did name her and that gave me comfort. A frind of mine gave me a Rosary from Medjagorie which her mother had brought back from a pilgrimage trip. I am not Catholic but I wanted that Rosary to be with my baby to protect her. I bought a special pink blanket for her to be wrapped in when she was put in a very small white casket. I was not allowed to see her for they had done an autopsy and she was not able to be viewed. Several days after the funeral, of the nurses from the hospital came to my home in the evening with the poloroid pictures and my husband and I looked at the photos as the nurse explained different things about what had gone wrong to cause our baby girls death that were written in the autopsy report. This kind nurse also made herself available to me if I needed to talk. This was comforting for no one else in my family would even talk about my baby at all or what happened. Not even my husband. To this day, no one will discuss this little baby girl but me and I rarely mention her to family. I was alone in my grief. My church did not even offer support and they had been notified. They must have been too busy for it was a weekend when she died.The church had an interim minister who performed my baby’s funeral and the funeral lasted only 1 minute!!! Can you believe it?? I was`really upset!!! Surely, more words of comfort could have been said. Scripture quoted, the value of life, etc. I put the photos, the autopsy report, the certificate made at the hospital with the hand and footprints in a special baby book I had bought prior to my little girls death.
    Since that time, I have been diagnosed with PTSD, Panic Attacks, Anxiety, Chronic Depression, and I could no longer hold my professional job of which I was very proud. I had difficulty concentrating. I struggled with whether I wanted to live or not. I am now on disability for I cannot handle working…and here it is 2010!!Why can’t I beat this depression????Trust me, I am working on it! I hate not being able to work…. because I do want to work…but unless you have walked in my shoes, you would not be able to understand. Its like someone has put cement boots on you. You can sink into depression if someone says the wrong thing and they have no clue what is going on , or a memory of what could have been comes to mind, etc. I still sometimes have difficulty getting out of bed and facing the day. My life feels empty. What is my purpose for living? I have done volunteer work to get myself out and helping others but I find that this can be too much for me at times. I have been getting help ever since the death and I see a doctor every two weeks. My husband and I have come close to divorce several times. If I had known he did not want children, I would have never married him. He knows this. It was a very selfish act on his part. I have forgiven him and that was not easy to do and we have moved on. Many couples who lose a child end up divorcing. I have moved on in my life and am trying to reach out to others and not be a hermit in my home. I like helping others and I do this well but not all the time.
    Something I want to say to everyone who do not understand about memento mori is that, speaking for myself, I loved that baby girl and I still do. Those pictures are not beautiful pictures of a full term baby. I wanted them because that was all I had left of her. I wanted to always remember her. If there were pictures of her, I did not want them thrown away. I do not look at the baby book or the pictures or autopsy report. They are put away and if, some day I wish to look at all of this again, I know where to locate them.
    I can understand now my maternal great-grandmother having photgraphs taken of her husband in his casket. She loved him. Yes,he was dead but you feel so desperate and full of grief and you want to cling and hold onto anything to remember that special person whom you loved. The pictures were not put out for others to see. They were private for moments where you hoped you might feel some element of closeness again to the departed. The same goes for my father and his poloroid photo of my grandfather. And, the same goes for my mothers paternal great-grandfather standing next to his young wifes grave after her burial. He was so full ofgrief I was told and had several young children he raised alone. He never remarried. I feel that all photos taken professionally or by family of family members who have died
    are a last attempt at holding on to that loved one who will never be seen again….and you want to see them again…even if it means it must be a death photo of which no one enjoys…not even the grieving…but you are desperate, despondent, depressed, and in shock. If you are spiritual, as I am, you do have the comfort of knowing that if you live your life right you will see your deceased loved one in heaven someday.
    I hope my sharing will help others have a greater understanding , empathy, and appreciation why people in the past as well as in the present may take photos of their deceased loved ones. Its not meant to “creep” or” spook” anyone or scare them. Its the last way that a person can hold onto the person who they loved, who died, and will no longer be with them. And, in the 19th Century, death was a way of life. Death was accepted then. Today, we run from it,we do not want to hear or see it or talk about it or be around anyone who is grieving. Thank you for letting me share my pointss of view.

    posted by Linda on 2-16-2010 at 6:10 pm

  139. These are creepy photos.
    Strange that some take pictures
    like these.

    thanks from tony

    posted by ntopics on 2-21-2010 at 8:37 pm

  140. Linda
    I found your post very moving. I don’t know what else to say, but thank you for sharing.

    posted by J on 3-1-2010 at 2:03 pm

  141. I, too, lost a child who was stillborn at birth. Just like Linda, the nurses took pictures and made a memory book for me. I had tried for years to have a baby and when I lost him at 6 months, I was devastated. My husband I held him for about 15 minutes. The nurses gave me pictures, and that, with his blanket, was all I had left of him. You know, I still had to deliver him, the same way someone delivers a live child. Same pain of childbirth, knowing he was already dead. The pictures were all I had in my grief. I do not look at the pictures really anymore, but I know they are there. In many other cultures, death is not looked at as creepy.

    Also, during the pregnancy after this loss, I could not travel. My great aunt died and I could not attend the funeral. My mother took a picture of her in her casket for me. She looked beautiful and peaceful. It wasn’t gross, it was a way to see her one last time. To remember her.

    posted by April on 3-9-2010 at 4:11 pm

  142. This creeped me out! Big time! And then I asked myself, WHY did this creep me out? I think the first picture with the eyes open are what did it to me.

    posted by Angie on 3-10-2010 at 12:37 pm

  143. I thought it was weird when my great-grandmother died and her son was taking pictures the whole time during her wake. Now i don’t think it’s so weird, jsut a little.

    * We’re Mexican by the way, I don’t know if that is a cultural thing or not?

    posted by Bubbles on 3-12-2010 at 5:22 pm

  144. I find these pictures very moving and interesting and also very sad. I’ve taken pictures of past family members and my Mom died a little over 5 years ago and my Dad died in Oct. of 2009 and I took photo’s of both of them. I look at them from time to time and I would be devastated if something ever happened to them even though it will always be etched in my mind. There is a comfort to have those photo’s and I will always treasure them. That does not make me morbid. It is a part of life. Thank’s for sharing.

    posted by Donnica Landon on 3-13-2010 at 9:20 pm

  145. So creepy yikes.

    posted by Vanity Bride on 3-19-2010 at 2:23 am

  146. Wow these are some creepy stuff. Thanks for sharing!

    posted by Aaron on 3-26-2010 at 1:09 pm

  147. I realize for alot of people it’s hard to imagine ever wanting such a photo. I suppose it’s because of the world we live in today, there isn’t much need for such photos. However think about it in terms like this…suppose we all didn’t have cameras, camera phones, internet, etc. You had no photos of yourself, let alone your siblings, parents or other relatives. If you were lucky you might have a photo made for your wedding. Now imagine someone dying, this will be the last time you see them forever, wouldn’t you want a photo to remember them? To show your children or grandchildren? Death was so much a part of life back then, it wasn’t hushed and removed as it is today. It was there, in your face. As my family’s historian, I find these fascinating pieces of history. These people were loved and those that loved them wanted to remember them forever.

    posted by Sar on 3-30-2010 at 9:33 pm

  148. Linda, I feel for you dear. My youngest sister was stillborn; I never got to see her, my mother only saw her for a moment as the mortician was taking the blanket-wrapped body away. Diana Leah is buried next to her father, with no marker, and it breaks my heart. I would have loved a photo of her… But I was too young then to have a say in anything… If you ever need to vent, look me up on facebook or blogspot.

    To Jenny, who asked if people still do this today: yep, we sure do. And I will continue to do so until the day *I* die, and by golly someone had better take a photo of me then (will be the only time I won’t complain about it).

    To Greg: I think I am the only person left in America to not have seen “The Others”… thanks for the tip, ha.

    To justsumcracker: gee *thanks* for pointing out the little girl’s leg. THAT was truly creepy!! I bet you have a blast with Rorschach tests… LOL.

    Finally to Angela, regarding your comment about the “low-class” comment: thank you. I found that to be quite insulting, and would have even if I weren’t one of the people that still take memento mori photos. While my daddy was from Mississippi, he was by no means “low class” and to denote “low-class whites” in the same sentence as African-Americans, is incredibly bigoted and perpetuating the myth of “Southern Rednecks”. But I won’t get onto /that/ soapbox!

    posted by Lyn on 4-7-2010 at 7:53 am

  149. @Ham: you nailed it, the one of the orphans is a stereograph. Found it on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/depthandtime/4294424114/

    posted by Lyn on 4-7-2010 at 8:00 am

  150. In the movie “The Road to Perdition”, Jude Law plays a 1920′s photographer who “shoots” the dead. His character just happens to be a hit man too, which goes well with his photography. Great movie. This post is creepy and I can’t look away.

    When I go out, I want eyeballs painted on my eyelids, my body rigged up so that my hands are seen gripping the side of the coffin, and as you step closer for a better look, a small foot-activated device raises and turns my head to “look” back at you. A small shot of brown liquor awaits you as you pass the coffin. Yeeeeeha.

    posted by CillasPunkin on 4-22-2010 at 3:31 pm

  151. I love photography, and also a bit of “ghoul” but this is really creepy. Those Victorians came up with some incredible ideas.

    posted by Kevin Mullins on 4-29-2010 at 12:15 pm

  152. I have always loved early photographs, especially post mortems. However, Linda’s post made me understand it in a way I never have before. Yes, these were photos taken out of desperation; that one last look. Not to be displayed, but just to be “had” and kept. Linda, I hope you are able to find peace and I’m so sorry for the loss of your baby.

    posted by klm on 5-1-2010 at 10:43 pm

  153. It’s an interesting indicator of how culture changes over time. The Victorians were very comfortable with death, and not so comfortable with sexuality. A momento mori was something socially acceptable to pass around or have displayed in the home, just as much as a dead relative would be before burial.

    Now, we’re uncomfortable with depictions of death, wouldn’t want our dead relatives sitting around with us until burial or cremation… but we’ll share naked photos of ourselves and others on a global scale.

    posted by Jane on 5-8-2010 at 3:06 am

  154. i found it interesting that the majority of comments are from women. maybe men see and don’t feel a need to share their thoughts…

    posted by grace on 5-12-2010 at 11:17 am

  155. In the 1st picture at the top of the boys had theres a face with black eyes have a look!

    posted by sarah stubbs on 6-12-2010 at 7:32 pm

  156. If u look even closer at 1st picture not only is there a face above the boys head (looks like a child)the is whot looks like a lady looking over the boy!u need 2 look really close!!

    posted by sarah stubbs on 6-12-2010 at 7:38 pm

  157. In the first photo that boy almost undoubtedly died of some communicable disease (Scarlet Fever, perhaps?) and the photograph is taken through a window because the photographer would likely not have been permitted in a quarantined home.

    It’s funny – but sad – how many of the commenters have so little (to no) grasp of history. Diseases and a shockingly high infant mortality rate were such a fact of life.

    In many MANY cases these photos were the ONLY record the loved ones would have of a soon to be buried family member.

    Photography then was still pricey, and it took time to get to a studio. They did not have “instamatic” cameras at home. Therefore, it was not uncommon for people to have only a handful of photos of their entire lives – not the 1,000′s before their first birthday (and then 10,000 on that day alone!) that we enjoy today.

    I cannot imagine, nor judge, the grief and pain of a mother realizing that she would never be able to see her baby again without the post-mortem photograph. I would imagine I would have wanted a photo as well. Ditto the locks of hair that are so often incorporated into these mementos as well.

    posted by KFS on 6-15-2010 at 7:53 am

  158. I remember my grandmother snapping pictures of both her sister and her mother at their funerals. I remember not liking that very much. When she’s gone some day, I’m not taking her picture, but I’m probably going to come across the ones she took when cleaning out her house. Ugh.

    posted by B-Doc on 6-26-2010 at 5:40 am

  159. Just imagine this; The year is 2190, (only 180 years from now). We’ve come very far in medicine. Cancer, heart disease, and all other known ailments and diseases have long since been cured. Hospitals no longer exist. Depression and sadness are also a thing of the past, thanks to a little pill. The average adult has never experienced a family members illness but certainly has read about illness and death in history books. Death is not a common occurrence because the average person lives to a ripe age of 150 plus.
    End of life communities exist but only far outside of major cities. The communities are called, “Palliative Gardens” serene, idyllic and picturesque. Each Palliative Garden,
    more elaborate in beauty and landscaping then it’s neighboring cities. The P.G. (Palliative Garden) tax, that has replaced both the Social Security and Health Care tax, is collected from each and every person and applied to the development and maintenance of a Palliative Garden. Admittance to a Palliative Garden is only permitted to those who are in their end of life, family and friends are not permitted, security is tight. The few, thanks to computerization, who are employed there are sworn to secrecy.
    Uncle John, now at the ripe old age of 161 waves his goodbye to his sister, niece and nephew, as he enters the Palliative Garden outside of New York City, known for it modern structures and rolling green hills. His niece, Amanda, turns to her brother David and said, “ He’s going to a much better place”. David nods twice in agreement.
    Amanda’s mother Sara looks long and hard as her brother slowly fads from sight and whispers, “ I’ve heard stories about what is done when a person is near death and dies…”
    Amanda interrupts her mother in mid sentence and said’s, “Mother, please that is so morbid. We’ve come so far in civilization… Here take this pill you’ll feel much better”.

    posted by Xcuzme on 7-13-2010 at 3:38 am

  160. The book Kevin found in the library was probably called “Wisconsin Death Trip”
    I also found a copy in the public library.

    posted by RHA on 10-15-2010 at 3:13 pm

  161. They used to publish dead outlaws in newspapers

    posted by Michelle on 10-18-2010 at 9:02 am

  162. This one haunts me

    http://worldsfamousphotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/woman_and_girl_falling.JPG

    posted by Tom Rankin on 10-26-2010 at 8:52 am

  163. Wow, the photo of the little girl and her brother really got to me. They’re about the same age difference as my brother and I and have the same hair color (When we were kids, he was blonde and I was brunette.) I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose a sibling at such a young age. Or at any age, honestly.

    posted by GWSTB on 10-28-2010 at 12:36 am

  164. we have a whole bunch of old photos like that in our family album. They sent photo’s of my great grandfather from japan when he passed away and we have them displayed at the shrine in my gma’s house. it reminds me of when we have relative that die the family gathers around the casket and we all take a picture with the deceased.

    posted by cmm on 11-6-2010 at 7:08 pm

  165. I know this post is pretty old now, but I wanted to mention that PM photography is traditional in Japan, where death is handled in a very different way to what Western cultures consider appropriate. When my grandmother died, nearly every member of the family, along with some of her close friends, posed for photos with her body. The people in the photos smiled, held her hands, touched her head – basically continued to express their affection for her, with no difference from how they treated her when she was alive. They were not squeamish or afraid to look at or interact with her just because she had died, which is very, very foreign to most Western cultures.

    Now, here is where most people will flip out, but I find this to be the most incredible part of the death ritual: as some may know, cremation is the standard in Buddhist cultures. In Japan, the entire family attends the cremation. After the cremation, the family gathers around – little children, too – and picks the bones of the deceased out of the ashes. Only bones will be placed into the urn. While they do this, they talk with each other and the children about the deceased, and about what death means, and about their beliefs and wishes. I think it’s a beautiful way for the whole family to usher their beloved through the process, while beginning their mourning period and openly discussing what the dead meant to them. They teach the children that death is a part of our journey here, and they don’t shy away from their involvement with the dead just because they have gone still. In the US, most people just pass their dead off to the funeral home, preferring to have some outside party handle the body and burial of their dead.

    I was born and raised in the US, so I was kind of shocked when my mother first showed me the pictures, but after listening to how much it meant to her to be photographed with her own mother one last time, I started to change my mind. Her description of the process of picking my grandmother’s bones from her ashes felt so sacred and careful. Modern Western cultures much prefer to turn their backs on the dead because they find them “creepy” or whatever – but the Japanese way really seemed to honor the dead while also helping the living to process what had happened and teaching the children about family and how natural death is. If my husband wasn’t so immediately freaked out by my mention of it, I would request this for my funeral.

    posted by sugarmama on 11-18-2010 at 1:00 pm

  166. The first time I saw this type of photography, like lots of commenters here, was in the movie The Others. Some of these pictures show the subjects standing up. Does anyone know how the deceased was made to stand up for the photo? To me, THAT is creepy. If anyone knows the answer, please post it. I’m curious.

    posted by Johnny on 12-8-2010 at 4:31 am

  167. Linda, I also lost a baby during pregnancy; I know the unbearable pain (though for me it’s been nearly 20 years). I wish I could have photos of my lost child — I’m sure you cherish yours. I mourn for your baby and hope that you can sense the care I’m sending your way.

    posted by Leslie on 1-12-2011 at 2:14 am

  168. Apologies if this has been covered in a previous post or not, there are so many posts I didn’t have time to read them all.

    There are volunteer photographers available at some hospitals to take pictures of stillborn babies, newborns and other small babies who have passed. I’ve seen some of these photographs and they’re very tasteful, usually with Mother cradling the baby in her arms, sometimes Father is in the pic as well; I’ve seen a shot of just the baby with Mother’s hand holding the baby’s head or hand; these are very intimate, soft photos and extremely personal I’m sure, not something to pass around at a family reunion, etc. but rather a souvenir/remembrance of a too-brief time with a special little angel. I think it would be something I would do if I lost a baby.

    That said, I don’t particularly approve of funeral-home/casket photos. My brother died from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident when he was 20. Without anyone’s knowledge or permission, an Uncle took a photo of my brother in his casket. A few years later, he pulled the photo out at a family reunion and showed it to my parents who were unprepared, to say the least, to see a picture of their son in death…. the grief was brand-new all over again.
    Just my opinion.

    http://www.babyangelpics.com/pictureofastillbornbaby.php

    http://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/medical_faq/

    posted by Ouija on 1-16-2011 at 7:29 pm

  169. Oh my gosh, I definitely should have clicked elsewhere, but once I started I had to see the rest. Heartbreaking that siblings had to post with the deceased one :(
    So interesting though.

    posted by MWeekly on 1-22-2011 at 3:34 pm

  170. The images are morbidly captivating. My passion is photography – photography weddings and births, yet I could not turn away from these images. My heart goes out to the child in the second photo.

    posted by HenryC on 2-8-2011 at 7:55 pm

  171. These photos are heartbreaking.

    I am not surprised but very disappointed in a number of comments here about the photos being “creepy” and what not. Post-mortem photos and other death related customs are cultural things. Consider the following

    The stories similar to the tragic ones posted about still-born babies and poor angels who die soon after birth. While for some people photos may be extrodinarily painful, for others it helps them remember the miracle of the child. It is proof that the child existed. In Western society there is this horrible idea that because a child dies young, was still born, or was a miscarriage that the parents should be able to just move on. Yet that is such a lie. When you have a child you start to dream and hope. When you carry that child and give birth you hope even harder. You bound with that child from the moment your learn of them. So many parents claim they loved their child from the moment they held them, but for many from the moment they learn of the pregnancy. Then the unthinkable happens and you are given a choice forget about that child forever, or not. It is a photo that helps keep the memory alive. It is a photo that reminds the universe that “my child/sibling/grandchild existed and no one can forget them.” Some people even think that the child is watching over them.

    At funerals taking a photo is not just some tradition done by blacks and “low class whites”, which is racist. Such a comparison automatically equates the two. However I think it is a predominately southern and Midwestern thing.

    It is a way to preserve the last time anyone will see that person. Some people prefer to see the dead as being alive, and others just want to hold onto that last image.

    My grandmother passed away in Dec. of 2010 of an aneurysm, and I wish I had taken a picture of her. It would be a way to say she was at peace…she wasn’t hurting. I know she is dead but at the same time I want some confirmation…something to tell me we did right by her. Because there is always that question of did she know I love her? Did I visit her enough? The very least my family could do was give her a nice funeral(two actually, a service,in two states and a burial. Plus I think it would be a way for me to show my future children what it was like.

    We should learn to accept death as a natural part of life. All things should return to the dust, and all things will. The best we can do is accept it and remember the times we had, and for some people that last time is the most important. Some need to have that last goodbye forever.

    posted by Darlarosa on 3-26-2011 at 6:54 pm

  172. It’s a strange feeling looking at these pictures and knowing that the people are dead. I guess in some ways it makes sense to take these last pictures of people it just seems weird to us in our culture.

    posted by Matt on 5-24-2011 at 8:47 am

  173. I am 62 years old..I remember as a child, an uncle who passed..washed by the men, dressed and placed on a table..the women, crying, the men drinking, sitting by his side, toasting him..then from one minute..the body was laying in repose…to a sitting position.!!every body had thier wits, scared out of them..The body was put in a Casket Made by one of the other family members and buried in the cemetary we had out side in the front yard..we waited a few months,,for the grave to “settle” then more dirt was added and a marker and dewberrys were planted on my uncles grave…Pictures of my grandmother in her coffin were taken and recordings of the grandchildren, then very young..saying goodbye to her…It is normal…it is how it has been done for centurys…

    posted by Earlene Montero on 6-3-2011 at 2:52 pm

  174. When I was about 9 or 10 my greart-grandmother passed. I was told she died peacefully at home in her sleep. Shortly there after my grandmother showed me some pictures of great-grandma, she was sleeping in a chair with a blanket over her legs. But something wasn’t right and I knew it. I looked at my grandma with horror and disgust at which point, without a word being said by either of us, she grabbed the photos and left. Grandma had found great-grandma and snapped a few pics before anyone arrived.

    That photo with the twin boys broke my heart and chilled me at the same time. I have/had twin brothers, one died in a motorcycle accident. The other twin was so distrought he couldn’t even attend the funeral. I couldn’t imagine if he would have been made to pose with him like those twin boys did.

    An interesting point in history but now-a-days it’s just not right and to all those modern PM picture-takers, I promise your memories are more beautiful than any picture of a corpse can ever be.

    posted by Ange on 6-14-2011 at 5:34 am

  175. Finally! The answer to a big mystery that bugged me all my life. Now I understand why nobody in my grandparents’ generation ever used the parlor, no matter how small and crowded the house was.

    posted by Peter on 6-28-2011 at 10:14 pm

  176. I will have to agree that these photos are rather different. My family is southern based and even today, we do not have funerals in a church nor a funeral home. Most do pass in hospitals if sick, but(with the assisants of a funeral personal)we was the bodies, dress,and groom them ourselves.The deceased has a viewing at the funeral home during evening hours for friends, the following morning taken to our family home place. (in which no one currently lives in)after the services are held that evening, many family memebers stay up with the dead as the saying says. The following morning the carriers walk .5 of a mile down the drive and up a curvy hill to the grave service. I know this is a strang custom. I guess it is a tradtion that has extending through out the years. Photos are still took with the parents and siblings of the deceased or the children and grandchildren. I guess it is there way of saying goodbye. This is truly going to sound very strang but it appears to help with the grieving process of the family regaurdless of how strange it sounds or if you agree with it. Every member of the family has basically a book of the dead that is kept current.

    posted by Christie on 7-6-2011 at 9:37 pm

  177. My parents bought a very old victorian style house about 15 years ago, and in their attic there was an old book with about 40 pictures of dead loved ones, most were children in coffins, but some were couples together, some were like the picture above where they take the picture like the subject is alive or with someone who was alive. They ended up selling the book to an antiques dealer.

    posted by Steve on 7-18-2011 at 10:33 pm

  178. Now this is an interesting article. I went back and read it 3 times. I would love to see a more in depth story on this.
    Nice, thanks.

    posted by Matt on 10-31-2011 at 12:35 pm

  179. Great article and photos! When my aunt died in 1970 my grandmother asked me to take a picture of her at the (open) coffin. My other aunts & uncles went crazy “Mom, we told you, no! That’s just morbid.” Although some adult finally agreed that is was okay. Never struck me as strange or creepy until the others started calling it that. I’m glad it happened. It was only later that I learned that it was once a common practice.As Pam said, we have a terribly unnatural way of preparing bodies today. It shows our inability to face death and grieving today. Also, my grandparents had a scrapbook with obituaries of every relative and close friend they knew. It turned out to be tremendously helpful in researching family history.

    posted by Brian on 11-1-2011 at 7:46 am

  180. This link has many more pm pictures and can answer all the questions you may have about this.

    http://www.antiquephotoalbum.nl/pmgalleries/index.php

    posted by Renee on 1-8-2012 at 3:01 am

  181. Postmortem photos are a new find for me, until just this week I had no idea such large amounts of people took pictures of dead loved ones and to be honest, when I saw the term “postmortem photos” entitling the first collection I saw I thought I was going to see pictures of an autopsy beig conducted! But I must say, I can honest see why people wanted to do this last act of love! I lost both of my parents almost 15 years ago within 9 weeks of each other and my mum was brought home for her “final night” as an 18 year old I was freaked out slightly at the thought of my mum in her casket whilst I was in the bath just above her…however I got used to having mum home and it felt right after a few hours and when we brought my dad home for his final night it didn’t feel strange. I did hug and kiss my parents in their caskets, I held their hands and talked to them and to be truthful, had I have been a little more savvy back then I would have got the camera out! I disagree that they don’t look beautiful or nice, my mum looked like mum but asleep, she looked peaceful and as beautiful as ever. My dad however didn’t look like dad, he looked tormented but he had committed suicide due to my mothers sudden death and I wonder if this is the difference between the two looking so different after passing? I have always thought that whatever way close family find to deal with their grief of losing a loved one is their choice, to cremate, inter, scatter ashes, not collect the ashes at all…..and take photos….if this helps the grieving process then so be it!

    posted by Jo on 1-21-2012 at 9:44 am

  182. Posthumous portraiture is such an interesting means of holding onto memory. I am currently working in a museum, and came across an example of a post-mortem portrait. I have attached the link to it, (its currently up on my blog.)

    Check this out!
    http://pagepaige.blogspot.com/2012/02/museum-internship-interesting-finds.html

    posted by Paige Doerner on 2-10-2012 at 5:19 pm

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