June 27, 2011

Louis Daguerre on Postmortem Photography

Written by Rosa Morgan

You may find these images disturbing or macabre, however, as the inventor of the daguerreotype in 1839, I attest they were not created with this intention. On the contrary, they were keepsakes of loved ones, proudly displayed in the home and circulated amongst friends and family. This young girl in her new dress has a circlet of flowers on her head, a bouquet at her shoulder, and one single blossom in her hand. Flowers held meaning for the Victorians, and a forget-me-not would be a most appropriate choice. Planks of wood in the background, may have been leftover lumber from the coffin's construction.



Infant mortality was high, especially in cities with poor sanitation and dirty water. An often overlooked cause of death was the use of narcotics to quiet bawling infants. Godfrey's Cordial, a mixture of opium, treacle, water, and spices was a favorite of working class mothers. In Manchester, England, five out of six families dosed their infants with opium.





Because my artistry of photography was expensive, most families may not have had an opportunity to capture a young child's likeness before they died. I often posed my subject as if they were alive, clutching a favorite toy. At times, I painted the pupils on the closed eyelids, or on the print itself. In this case, a rosy glow is added to the cheeks with great effect.








It's unknown what horrible catastrophe wiped out this entire family, but epidemics of cholera, tuberculosis, influenza, and smallpox went unchecked in overcrowded cities. Death by sickness was at a level not seen since the Black Death of the Middle Ages.



Living children often posed with their dead siblings. Due to the long exposure time, I had to ask my subjects to remain motionless for three to fifteen minutes.






Keen on capturing the essence of an individual, I, would at times, go to great lengths. This gentleman was able to maintain his noble bearing with the help of a steel rod attached to his back, and wires positioning his arms. A close-up of his eyes reveals the vacant stare of death.

Unfortunately, with the advancement of photography, and thus the resulting economy of capturing one's likeness, memento mori is no longer in vogue.


(Dear Gentle Reader, Please post your comment regarding this fascinating
Victorian art form.)





15 comments:

  1. Very intriguing and interesting, I find the Victorian fascination with post-mortem photography quite a melancholy and touching subject.

    Your blog is super, by the way!

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  2. Dear Amateur Casual, It seems our innate fear of death draws us to the very subject. And thank you, kind sir, for your praise, it has made this a red-letter day for me.

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  3. Fascinating collection of images! Could we be so comfortable with our deceased loved ones today? I doubt it.

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  4. Dear @slangular, I agree with you. I think the practise of family members actually preparing the body for burial was an essential part of the grieving process, and one that would be very foreign to our modern sensibilities.

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  5. Thank you for posting that. I wonder where are these citations from. It´s very interesting.

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  6. Hi Maros, Thanks for your interest in the blog. I don't have specific citations because my blog is a unique blend of fact and fiction, which makes it historical fiction. I do a lot of research on the subject, and then I use creative license, my imagination, to write the subject from the perspective of the historical figure. The work is not really Daguerre's opinions, but rather what I think he would say.

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  7. By the way, there are two pictures in your text that are not really post-mortem photographs. The one with boys on the sofa was made for the horror movie A Haunting in Connecticut. Another one with the gentleman in uniform on studio photograph is not post-mortem for sure. Deceased people were usually arranged on such photographs but always sitting or laying.

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  8. Now I see why you choose the photos.

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  9. Hi Maros, That's an interesting origin of the two boys photo, but I still think the firefighter one is real. Nevertheless, it's a fascinating subject that is worth pursuing.

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    1. the fire fighter one IS real, you can see the stand propping him up behind his foot. they had elaborate frames to hold people up i have seen quite a few standing ones.

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    2. The presence of a stand is not in any way proof of post-mortem. Stands were employed routinely to assist the living in remaining still for the very, very long exposure times required for photography of that time.

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  10. That picture of the deceased family- they were actually all murdered by a farmhand in Southern Missouri.

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  11. Hello Anonymous, good to know. Do you have any other information on the murder?

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  12. Thanks for your article about Louis Daguerre and this macabre subject of photography! I really wasn't aware of these photographs, but it makes sense, because dead bodies don't move....
    BTW, yesterday (August 19), it was the anniversary of Daguerre's invention going public in 1839, when he presented his photographic process to the Academie Francaise. In our daily 'History of Science, Technology, and Arts' Blog, we have dedicated an article to that event. If you are interested, you might learn more about Daguerre and his invention at http://yovisto.blogspot.de/2013/08/making-photography-really-operational.html

    Best regards,
    Harald

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