A Tapophile's Photography

[MinLynn]

Ah that could help me out then!

 

[starsevol]

That's great! I'd love to have that! Shhhh.......but I also love Victorian Post-Mortem Photography. Told you........creeeeeepy!

Some hair jewelry was love tokens, but alot of it was remembrance jewelry. I have a pin with the deceased name on it.

 

[MinLynn]

My husband's family has kept everything(and I mean everything) over the past 100 or so odd years and it's all in my warehouse right now. I really, really need to go through these rooms and find some great stuff like that. We're talking 3 stories of warehouse, though and the whole entire upper story is full of nothing but antiques and things from the time this house was built in 1904.

 

[starsevol]

My husband's family has kept everything(and I mean everything) over the past 100 or so odd years and it's all in my warehouse right now. I really, really need to go through these rooms and find some great stuff like that. We're talking 3 stories of warehouse, though and the whole entire upper story is full of nothing but antiques and things from the time this house was built in 1904.

You're so lucky! I would love that!

 

[vetusvates]

OK,...so...I've been googling and oggling "Victorian post-mortem photography". I had not heard of that, to my knowledge.
Definitely weird stuff. But not so weird I didn't gawk for about an hour. LOL.

 

[ZoologyGirl]

I've been known to wander a random cemetery at times. Somewhere I have pics from a really old cemetery known as indian point cemetary. Its up in the upper peninsula of michigan on a back road that no one ever goes down unless they are going to the 1 town that is on that road were probably less than 100 people live and there are few to no businesses.

Anyway...many of the graves have no headstones...and only recently someone went around to every grave they could find and marked it with a cross. The site is a very sandy location so its pretty easy to spot the graves because they are all sunken in. someone also carved an indian head on one of the trees in the cemetary, it's pretty neat. It is still being used today and there are a few recent headstones out there.

 

[Tula_Montage]

Some beautiful photographs in there!

 

[MinLynn]

OK,...so...I've been googling and oggling "Victorian post-mortem photography". I had not heard of that, to my knowledge.
Definitely weird stuff. But not so weird I didn't gawk for about an hour. LOL.

This guy has a whole website dedicated to it. Costs money, though! Here's his collection on Flickr. Like I said,though, it's hard for some people to look at. Lots of the pics are of children and infants. There are even some I have a very very hard time looking at. I tend to skip over the children ones a lot. A lot of people don't understand why this was done,but, if you think about it, back then, there was no such thing as a personal camera so a lot of the time the family had no photos of their loved one so they would quickly shell out the money to have a photo done after death so they had something to remember by.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thanatosdotnet/sets/72157600887340360/

 

[MinLynn]

Thank you Tula! And that cemetary sounds really cool though probably hard to photograph without any stones!

 

[vetusvates]

This guy has a whole website dedicated to it. Costs money, though! Here's his collection on Flickr. Like I said,though, it's hard for some people to look at. Lots of the pics are of children and infants. There are even some I have a very very hard time looking at. I tend to skip over the children ones a lot. A lot of people don't understand why this was done,but, if you think about it, back then, there was no such thing as a personal camera so a lot of the time the family had no photos of their loved one so they would quickly shell out the money to have a photo done after death so they had something to remember by.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thanatosdotnet/sets/72157600887340360/

Yeah....I was reading about it....and oddly, have no problem looking at any of them myself (I did go to med school for 2 years, before dropping out, and loved gross anatomy).
I have noticed there are some families, maybe to do with religion, not sure....who still to this day photograph the dead...in the casket, you know. But not my family, it would just never occur to us, I guess. It never has occurred to us yet.
But it is a neat thing that you have introduced me to today, Mindy. Macabre (which I like), but unique.

 

[carol]

Lovely pics and interesting link!

The doggie photo made me cry. The hardest part about seeing those pics is wanting soooo bad to know the stories behind them. Like the twin boys. How could they have possibly met their fate together? I want to know the story behind so many of them...

 

[danielle]

I too was intriqued and wanted to see some victorian post mortem photography. I think it is neat to think these people had these pictures taken because it literally in many cases was the only photo they would have. Definitely interesting stuff for sure, but the baby photos were no fun. They all looked like sleeping angels like mine do at night, but then it hits you their dead. Some were so tiny I assume they died in childbirth, but like Carol said you can't help but wonder how.

 

[airenlow]

I have noticed there are some families, maybe to do with religion, not sure....who still to this day photograph the dead...in the casket, you know. But not my family, it would just never occur to us, I guess. It never has occurred to us yet.

My dad has taken his camera to a few family funerals. His mom died when I was 8 and my little brothers were either very small or not even thought of yet...so he wanted us to have pictures to remember her by. He did the same a few years back when my great grandparents died. Although I couldn't do it personally, I don't have an issue with others doing so.

 

[carol]

DYK these photos are so touching, now the mother with her dying child really got me. Thanks for sharing.

 

[MinLynn]

Yeah, I lot of them hit you right in the heart. Most of them I'm just amazed at the strenght and love these people had for their family members. I've often sat and wondered what happened? How did it happen? Especially the ones with kids. The really really interesting ones are the ones where the dead are posed in very life like positions. I can't find right at this moment but there is one of a girl who had been dead for 19 days but still looked so alive you'd never know it. They have her posed sitting up and reading a book. I'll have to find it!

 

[MinLynn]

Found a cemetery that I had never been to and of course I had to take pics! It was just a tiny little catholic cemetery, front section old and back section new. It was very well maintained. It's rare around here to come across a cemetery where the old section is still being maintained.

 

[vetusvates]

Nice pictures, Mindy. The three little girls. What a blow to a family.

 

[RavenSpirit360]

Nice photos, thanks for sharing

 

[Jynx]

Those are absolutely wonderful shots dear! I too share a bit of tapophilia (not to mention a bit of obssession with post-mortem anything). I have a ton of black and whites that I took of the old Mesa cemetery (which is HUGE) but I have no idea where they are. Its been a while since I was able to get out there anymore though. Looks like I'll have to live vicariously through your pics!

 

[Jynx]

The hardest part about seeing those pics is wanting soooo bad to know the stories behind them. Like the twin boys. How could they have possibly met their fate together? I want to know the story behind so many of them...

Carol I agree 100%! The stories I've been conjuring up in my head are endless. How I wish I had a bit of a hint though. I'm so curious, especially when it comes to things of a questionable nature. I guess thats why I turned out so... "weird"