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Post-mortem photography

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Postmortem Photography of the Victorian Era | History

3:58

postmortem photography

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I Had the Job of Taking Pictures of the Dead

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Episode 27 - Post Mortem Photography

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Post-mortem photography ( children)

Post-mortem photography is the practice of photographing the recently deceased. These photographs of deceased loved ones were a normal part of American and European culture in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Commissioned by grieving families, postmortem photographs not only helped in grieving, but often represented the only visual remembrance of the deceased and were among a family's most precious possessions. There can be considerable dispute as to whether individual early photographs actually show a dead person or not, often sharpened by commercial considerations.