Strange and horrific custom: "posing for pictures of dead people"

During the Victoria era in England (1837 - 1901), a creepy tradition was very popular: "Post Mortem Photo", which means taking photos of the "dead" or taking photos with them. But it's not just as simple as taking pictures of their remains. They also use some props and makeup techniques to make the dead appear in the photos as if they were still alive.

People in that period chose to take photos with their deceased family members because they wanted to seize the last chance to take photos with them. Photography technology was not very developed and popular in that era, unlike the modern era where we had the opportunity to take photos every day and were often photographed reluctantly), so taking photos with the deceased was of great significance to people in that era.

those days, it took a long time to take a photo, ranging from 30 seconds to 15 minutes, which meant that the living had to pose with the deceased in front of the camera and often had to stay next to the deceased for several minutes.

In such photos, the deceased is often the one photographed most clearly. That is because the deceased is still during the long photo taking process. Even if the living person maintains the same posture, it is still difficult to guarantee that there will be some subtle movements in a few minutes, so it will be a little blurred in the photos taken.

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was called "Momento Mori" at that time, which means "memory of the deceased." In addition to taking photos with the deceased, it also reminds us that each of us will eventually face death. Therefore, we should not be afraid of death, but accept the fact that death does exist and make good use of every day during our lifetime.

Why is it that among the many dead people posing for pictures, the most common one is a photo of children? That's because in an era when medical care was not yet developed and there were no vaccines, there were many cases of childhood deaths due to illness.

Photographers design photo poses for the dead to make them look lifelike in the photo, such as the deceased girl reading a book in the photo below. They often pose the deceased based on their favorite pastime during their lifetime. The reason why the girl's face in the picture is a little blurred is that the body slipped slightly during the photo shoot.

Once people die, their muscles will not provide the strength to support them to sit up. Therefore, photographers sometimes rely on props to fix them on pillars, such as the girl in the picture. There is actually a support behind her.

Family members sometimes take photos of the deceased and their favorite objects during their lifetime, such as the little girl and her favorite doll in the following figure. The effect when photographed is like a girl falling asleep halfway through playing with her doll.

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takes pictures of several dead people at once. For example, the mother in the picture died due to childbirth, and of the three babies photographed with her, only the one on the right survived.

The asking price for a dead person is very expensive. After all, not every professional photographer is willing to take pictures of a dead person, let alone touching a body. Therefore, customers usually come from families ranging from moderately prosperous to affluent.

Back then, information was not as developed as it is now, and the technology for preserving corpses is not as good as it is today. Therefore, people often hold funerals soon after passing away, and news of the deceased can be released through newspapers and magazines. Therefore, it is often seen that the first thing their family did after arriving at the scene of the death was to take a photo immediately with the corpse. Moreover, they are accustomed to describing the death process and circumstances of the deceased in detail in the obituary, no matter how tragic).

Sometimes the body is too stiff and the eyelids cannot be opened, making the deceased look alive in the photo. Therefore, photographers sometimes draw eyeballs on the deceased's eyelids on the photo, as shown in the picture. It became even more creepy after painting the eyes!

Sometimes it's hard to tell who's alive and who's dead in a photo. Guess which one is the dead person in the picture? The answer is the one on the right. His relatively simple standing posture is an obvious hint, and the support behind his right foot gives away the horse's identity.

网站图片位Dead People pose also provides a service to take photos of dead pets. For example, in the picture, except dogs, everyone else is living. In those days, it was also popular to make specimens of dead pets and place them in the living room of home.

The网站图片位determines that the family members who spend money to take photos of the deceased will take photos regardless of the death status of the deceased, whether it is burned to death, disfigured, bitten by insects or animals. The picture shows a female deceased whose face was half decomposed after her death. Maybe it had been some time since the body was discovered, or maybe her family decided to take photos at the last moment.