Early photo editing post mortem / memento mori

victorian post mortem photography skull illusion alanas collectables

This post mortem cabinet card photo is currently for sale – I’m sorely tempted, but just can’t afford to get sucked into collecting. Bah.

If you’re interested, you can find the details here

Photography by Wright Photographer, Fennimore, Wisconsin – date unknown. I’m not entirely  convinced that it was taken after death, as the man’s face looks – to me, at least – as if it still has muscle tone. That said, it does bear the giveaway ‘dotted eyes’ that are often seen when a photographer has edited the image after printing.

What do you think?

¨°º©©º°¨¨

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE SKULL’S FACEBOOK PAGE

Posted in americana, dead or not, memento mori, post mortem photography, Victorian | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Frederik Ruysch

skull illusion creepy cool frederik ruysch

The Embalming Jars of Frederik Ruysch

Thanks to my lovely friend Jenny for sending me this link. I would have very much liked to have been friends with Frederik, I think.

These remarkable ‘still life’ displays blurred the boundary between the demonstrative element of scientific preservation and the symbolic and allegorical of vanitas art.

Click here for full article.

¨°º©©º°¨¨

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE SKULL’S FACEBOOK PAGE

Posted in animals, art, clever people, taxidermy, vintage, weird science | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Gentleman with (many) candles – post mortem, memento mori

victorian post mortem photography skull illusion burns archive man candles

Ooh, it’s like something out of a BRILLIANT old horror movie…

Post mortem photograph courtesy of The Burns Archive, via Morbid Anatomy.

¨°º©©º°¨¨

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE SKULL’S FACEBOOK PAGE

Posted in memento mori, photography, post mortem, post mortem photography, Victorian, vintage | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Buried separately but still together…

skull illusion vintage grave photograph history pics twitter

I don’t often include gravestone photographs, but I couldn’t resist this one. Taken in Roermond, Newfoundland in 1888, it is apparently ‘the graves of a Catholic woman and her Protestant husband, who were not allowed to be buried together’.

Photo courtesy of History Pics on Twitter

Thanks to Emma  for sending me the link.

¨°º©©º°¨¨

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE SKULL’S FACEBOOK PAGE

Posted in graveyards, reader contributions | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Small child in coffin – post mortem, memento mori

victorian post mortem photography skull illusion child propped coffin

Small but perfectly formed…

Unfortunately I don’t have a bigger version of this post mortem photograph, nor do I have any background information. I think it comes from an eBay listing, but can’t be sure – I found it in a random collection of images on a dormant website (which is all too often the case with these photos).

You can quite clearly see the metal prop that’s been used to tip the little coffin up to get a decent angle for the photographer.

¨°º©©º°¨¨

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE SKULL’S FACEBOOK PAGE

Posted in children, eBay, memento mori, post mortem photography, Victorian | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dead or Not?

victorian post mortem photography skull illusion woman fan chair

Because we haven’t done this for a while…

This is yet another supposedly post mortem photograph that is swimming around the net without any background detail.

I can see why people might think that this is a post mortem pic, but I’m not entirely convinced. The lady’s eyes still seem to have a spark of life in them, in my opinion.

What do you think?

¨¨°º©©º°¨¨

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE SKULL’S FACEBOOK PAGE

Posted in dead or not, memento mori, post mortem, post mortem photography, Victorian | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments