Comments on: Only the Creepiest Photos Ever Taken

By: Pamela

Pamela — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:48:10 +0000

These photos are a gift. They capture culture, style, mores, religion, gentility, and are rife with historical information, not to mention the photos are meant to be a last memento, or remembrance, of the deceased.

By: Paige Doerner

Paige Doerner — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:19:09 +0000

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

By: Jo

Jo — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:44:52 +0000

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!

By: Renee

Renee — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 08:01:29 +0000

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

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:46:04 +0000

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.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:35:37 +0000

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.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 02:33:28 +0000

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.

By: Christie

Christie — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 01:37:37 +0000

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.

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 02:14:11 +0000

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.

By: Ange

Ange — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 09:34:34 +0000

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.