Post Mortem Photography WARNING

Post-Mortem photography involves photographing the deceased and was an unusual practice by current standards but was fairly common up into the late 19th century and was even practiced up into the early 20th century. The fact that early death — especially the early death of a child — was much more commonplace, and that photography was still somewhat of a novelty even in the later part of the 19th century, gave a societal acceptance to the practice of photographing the dead; often with some of the living family members included in the portrait.

This practice may have been somewhat more common in Europe, but was widely practiced in the USA as well.

Variations on this practice included photographing a family portrait with a “shrine” to the dead family member included in the pose or posing next to the grave of the departed. Items of the departed member, such as photographs, toys and flowers might all be included in the composition.

Post-Mortem photography, one of the most common practice in 19th. Century photographs, is often wrongly understood today. The unfortunate mistake of judging these images being morbide caused the loss of thousands images that were ones so important for the mourning process of people. Unawareness of the beauty inside these images became the most destructive enemy for this respectful LAST LOOK.

Although part of everyday life, today, the majority of people reject death without any intelligent argument. In the 19th. Century, early death was much more common and people knew how to live with this. The easiest choice today is rejecting the other side but this attitude neglect all respect for the departed and theirs surviving families in the 19th. Century.

On this page, I hope to revive the respect for these important and "beautiful" images depicting our 19th. Century predecessors. By experience, I know that this is not an easy task but worth trying anyway!

In the right image, a typical Post-Mortem Carte-de-Visite photograph is seen. On the back of the photograph there is a poem written in Dutch. Most likely by the parents.