Home Art The Disturbing Victorian Art Of Death Photography, Memento Mori

The Disturbing Victorian Art Of Death Photography, Memento Mori

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The Disturbing Victorian Art Of Death Photography, Memento Mori

The term Memento Mori means “remember that you must die”, it is a Latin and philosophical term that seeks to remember that nothing is eternal on earth and that somehow prepares people for what is beyond the death.

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So, according to this term, for the Victorian era people seemed to have accepted what it meant to leave this world, to die, considering the fact that people lived, on average, until they were 40 years old. With the Victorian era photography was born, so the people of this era sought to immortalize the person who died.

The creepy of this art is in three fundamental aspects, which we will tell you below, while we show you a couple of post-mortem photos of this era.

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1. The only photo of the person

The only photo of the person
Source: Imgur

The first fact for which this art is really disturbing is that, since photography was a rather expensive element, in most families the only photograph that one person ever had was that taken on his deathbed.

Memento-Mori
Source: Imgur
The-Macabre-Victorian
Source: Imgur
Death-Photography
Source: Imgur

2. Alive or dead?

Alive or dead
Source: Imgur

The second fact is that, when the post-mortem photographs were started, people posed as if the deceased was still alive. So, on many occasions the family is noticed around as if nothing happened.

Alive
Source: Imgur
dead
Source: Imgur

They were the photographers who were in charge of organizing the scene and of placing in the best possible way the corpse so that it would live alive.

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Alive or dead 1
Source: Imgur

3. Ghost or reality?

Ghost or reality
Source: Imgur

Finally, since the photograph for the Victorian era was really slow, the living people used to move while they were portrayed, so in most of the photos the living appear blurred while the deceased appears completely neat.

Ghost
Source: Imgur
reality
Source: Imgur

Consequently, in some cases is possible doubt whether the living person was really there or was just some entity that was in transit.

Ghost or reality Photography
Source: Imgur
Death Photography
Source: Imgur