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Author Topic: Momento Mori/Post Mortem photograph?  (Read 6989 times)

Offline Brittaya

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Momento Mori/Post Mortem photograph?
« on: Tuesday 19 June 12 00:21 BST (UK) »
This is a photo of my husband's great, great grandmother. I've done some reading about post mortem photography and apparently it wasn't uncommon in the Victorian era to take photos of people who had passed on. Now I'm quite certain the woman in this photograph is dead, because she's looking down or her eyes are closed and she looks awkwardly posed. His family however, thinks I am crazy. Of course they don't know much about history, and I think they are just creeped out by the idea of a dead person in a photograph. So I'm just wondering if anyone on here can tell if she is alive or dead. She died in 1929 and there's no date on the photo, her son would have been 29 when she died (the man in the photo). So maybe dating would help? Thanks everyone.
Black - Aberdeen
Milton - Aberdeen
Houston - Canada, Ireland, Scotland
Joslyn - Canada, England
Ross - Scotland, Ireland

Offline Seoras

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Re: Momento Mori/Post Mortem photograph?
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 19 June 12 00:26 BST (UK) »
I think she is a live one Brittaya,or he is a cool one calmly having a fag sat next to her.
SCOTLAND: Wardlaw Steen/Stein Tweedie McBride McEwan Pate/Peat Brown Somerville Bishop Farier/Ferrier Wood  Torrance Gibb Ross Dunlop Downs Richardson Ramsey Story Snaddon/Sneddon Auld Allan McLean McInnes Mason Law Lawson Kerr Cockburn Christie Ballingall Wardrope Weir Wallace Scott.
IRELAND: Welsh Clifford Lee Allingham Keane Dale Robinson Greer McVey Bingham Skelton Carson Broomfield Clark McEwan/McKeown McCreary McLaughlan.
YORKSHIRE: Cudworth Smith Cope Coulton Hainsworth

Offline Brittaya

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Re: Momento Mori/Post Mortem photograph?
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 19 June 12 00:31 BST (UK) »
Perhaps. I might be off my nut haha. I just think she looks "off" like how one shoulder is slanted down and the other up, but perhaps she was just really old and having trouble holding herself even.
Black - Aberdeen
Milton - Aberdeen
Houston - Canada, Ireland, Scotland
Joslyn - Canada, England
Ross - Scotland, Ireland

Offline carlolsen

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Re: Momento Mori/Post Mortem photograph?
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday 19 June 12 00:33 BST (UK) »
   I  Think....you may, be right. At first sight i would not have given a thougt,but
, when mentioned,Yes......I don't yhink she is that interested in the daily news either or the result of the first race.
                 Kia Ora ,
                             Carl.
Olsen or Olson New Zealand

Offline Brittaya

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Re: Momento Mori/Post Mortem photograph?
« Reply #4 on: Tuesday 19 June 12 00:36 BST (UK) »
And is it just me or does her left eye look sort of sunken in?
Black - Aberdeen
Milton - Aberdeen
Houston - Canada, Ireland, Scotland
Joslyn - Canada, England
Ross - Scotland, Ireland

Offline CarolA3

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Re: Momento Mori/Post Mortem photograph?
« Reply #5 on: Tuesday 19 June 12 00:44 BST (UK) »
........ and she's sitting up straight, holding her book, the jaw hasn't dropped ........ BOO!........ yup, that's done the trick ;D
OXFORDSHIRE / BERKSHIRE
Bullock, Cooper, Boler/Bowler, Wright, Robinson, Lee, Prior, Trinder, Newman, Walklin, Louch

Offline Brittaya

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Re: Momento Mori/Post Mortem photograph?
« Reply #6 on: Tuesday 19 June 12 00:49 BST (UK) »
Yeah but they had stands to hold people in place, and rigor mortis begins with eyelids, neck and jaw so her jaw could have been closed from rigor before they posed her.. Still could have been a "let's squeeze in one last photo before she passes" kind of photo.
Black - Aberdeen
Milton - Aberdeen
Houston - Canada, Ireland, Scotland
Joslyn - Canada, England
Ross - Scotland, Ireland

Offline CarolA3

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Re: Momento Mori/Post Mortem photograph?
« Reply #7 on: Tuesday 19 June 12 00:55 BST (UK) »
No strings attached :-\

Time for my bed now, goodnight all.

Carol
OXFORDSHIRE / BERKSHIRE
Bullock, Cooper, Boler/Bowler, Wright, Robinson, Lee, Prior, Trinder, Newman, Walklin, Louch

Offline PrueM

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Re: Momento Mori/Post Mortem photograph?
« Reply #8 on: Tuesday 19 June 12 01:55 BST (UK) »
She is most definitely alive!  :)

They would not have propped her up like that, reading a book, if she had passed on.  It was very unusual to have the dead in "living" poses when photographed, sometimes children were held or sat next to a sibling but usually they are obviously deceased - lying down, sometimes in a casket, usually with flowers. 
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