For a few years when photography was just in its very early years,
There were people who wanted pictures of their deceased family members .

Especially children , some would pose them and prop them up.
There was a name for both the picture(s) and those that offered these services.

Not post mortem .
Some photos went in to albums others went on the mantel or piano for a period of mourning.

I can't remember what they advertised it's in the papers.

Memento mori photography

Creepy.

Reminds me of the movie "The Others" with Nicole Kidman. It featured this kind of photography. It's a suspense thriller.



Tony.

The Others’ plot twist was clearly copied from The Sixth Sense. So, that was lame, imo.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
The Others’ plot twist was clearly copied from The Sixth Sense. So, that was lame, imo.

Actually - the Innocents (1961) was the inspiration for the Others - much sooner than 6th Sense:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055018/


Deborah Kerr at her best - all suspense - no CGI - all set in mood!

It might have been the inspiration for The Others, based on the settings and the main characters, but there are very little parallels, otherwise, imo. And, the plot twist at the end instantly reminds one of The Sixth Sense. At least to me, it did.

120 years ago it was called 1905.

And it might very well have been as early as the 1850's
Because a lot of the photos were on glass plates
.

There were those pictures of dead bank robbers in the later 1800s.

Years ago, early 70’s, I was with a casual lady friend and we were looking at her family photos, imagine a big box full of old black and white and color, both professional and amateur.

One amateur photo was a older lady in a casket. I did a double take, she explained that it was a thing for one side of her family, old country Polish to take one last photo…..

It was matter of fact,actually nonchalant to her. Creeped me out though.

Yes, far sooner and far more common than 120 years ago.

12131 probably has the classical term correct (when people actually studied “dead” languages), but AI Copilot calls it “mourning portraiture.”

Although I can only guess, starting 100 years ago or so, individuals had cameras and there were services that permitted them to take their own family pictures. If you have pictures of your living children for your memories, why gloomy pictures after they were dead? But in the days when photography was mostly limited to professionals and, perhaps most important, when exposure times required the subjects to sit immobile for long periods, how practicable would that be with young children?

Turns out that it had many names.
A word of warning
Don't search it on YouTube.

There is a bunch of way whacky ass sh#t that you can't imagine.

I mean nightmare stuff.disturbing .

The examples they showed on the documentary was very tame, almost artistic.

Not so on y.t.