shadyoaks:raven-waves:In the nineteenth century, a morbid and curious custom has spread to various p
shadyoaks:raven-waves:In the nineteenth century, a morbid and curious custom has spread to various parts of the world: the photos were ”Post Mortem”.”Post Mortem” comes from Latin, meaning after death.The photos ”Post Mortem” apparently originated in England, when Queen Victoria asked to photograph the corpse of an acquaintance or a relative, so she can keep as a souvenir.soon after, this idea spread around the world, keeping a morbid reminder of loved ones that have passed on.Even today, as strange as it may seem, some places still have this custom.The girl who is standing in the photo is the one who is dead.This is a classic example of photographic art. Notice the handswhere is deadpeoplecan’tstand when you need themVictorians liked postmortem photography, I’ll give you that. But not like this.Victorians also liked asymmetry, which is one reason why photographs often have one person sitting and one person standing. When someone is standing in a photograph it signals that they are of a lower rank than the sitting person, as whoever is the most important is rewarded with a comfortable position while the picture is being taken. This is almost always a wife, child, or in this case, younger sibling. Because of this inconvenience they were sometimes offered a back brace on a stand to keep them from swaying and ruining the picture, although there is no evidence of that here.This girl’s hand is still because she is clearly resting it on that of her older sister, who was nice enough to position the chair so they could both use it.Honestly, if you were going to pose a dead person in a photograph, why wouldn’t you put them in the chair? -- source link
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