Departed Father (spirit photograph)

I've always been fascinated by Victorian Spirit Photographs, a type of Victorian trick photography where a deceased family member is superimposed as a 'spirit' into a family photograph. It really reflects the Victorian Mourning culture and their way of dealing with the high mortality rate at the time.
I think its rather beautiful to make an image to reinforce the belief that a dead loved one is still with you.
I made my own take on a spirit photograph using bits from my collection, depicting a family with their deceased father\husband

The face I used for the Father is a photograph of my Great Grandfather.

Christmas Time

Its Christmas day! I've had a pleasant, chilled out day. My parents are watching the Doctor Who Christmas Special, which I don't like, so I decided to share my Christmas pressies on here.
I got two amazing postmortem pictures from my dad, so Chuffed with them.





The Man who sold these photographs said they were both of the same child. This could well be true, the children appear to be the same age and the wreath of flowers round the head on the one picture does look alot like the wreath resting on the childs lap in the other picture.
The only thing is I wonder why the two set ups are so different in background, the one in white with wallpaper behind, the other completely surrounded by Dark fabric. the mounts are also different, why would only one mount have the photographers stamp on it? I guess we'll never know for sure.

Sleeping Beauty 3

So it arrived, my amazing book, sleeping beauty 3, I love it soo much, its signed by Stanley Burnes. Its a smaller that the previous ones, but I quite like its small size, kinda like a childrens book, but a terribly sad one.







It came with a postmortem CDV thats so wonderful and delicate, the perfect parcel arriving this morning, has made my day :)

postmortem detail

I loved enhancing the childs face in my last post, so I am going to do the same with my favourite post mortem from my collection, there is no question here that she is dead though. I now have 7 post mortem photos, which I think is pretty good considering how expencive they can be

Original photo



detail - this gives me the shivers



I have reduced myself to tears so many times while going through my collection, i'm odd. But then again whats the point of collecting something unless it moves or effects you deeply

Highlights from my Old Photograph collection

I am a collector of Antique and Vintage photographs, I have literally hundreds and hundreds of them, ranging from Victorian to 1950s I mainly focus my collection on Children, but I also have many others, anything that catches my eye really, I thought i'd post here my most prized pictures from my collection, the gems I am so happy to own.

The first picture is a photograph of my Grandfather and his brother dressed for a local fancy dress party, as a clown and a black Minstrel. I adore this picture, the original is very tiny and one of a series including their parents in costume and costumes they wore to other events. As well as my many anonymous pictures, I love having pictures from my family aswell.



This Pair of cabinet Cards are so lovely, I bought them off the internet so I have no idea who they are, or anything about them. To me they appear to be brothers who have been photographed in some epic crochet collers their mother or Grandmother probably lovingly made for them.



This one was bought online from America, I just love the outfit she is wearing and the setting, she seems kind of spooky and strange, I wonder what event she was dressed up for, possibly a bridesmaid.



Here is my Indian boy, A small picture in large frame, which I really like. This little boy was brought back for me from India by a friend who went on holiday there.



This is one of my all time favoutites from my collection, its a Tintype in an amazingly elaborate frame. On the back there is a little information about him, his name is Charles and he is a freed slave, I am so taken with his handsome, jolly face and his wonderful outfit, I found him in an antique shop near Cambridge.



This is my favourite of all the Holy Communion photographs I have, I love her face and her pose, its just a gorgeous photograph, I bought this online from Lisbon.



Another lovley Holy Communion Picture, with a Brother and Sister, I unfortunately can't remember which country this was from, possibly Belgium and it was bought online.



This pictures comes from a Photograph album I bought online from France, its very faded, but I adore it, I love the border and the patterned cloth they are sat on.



This another one from the French Album, a brother and sister, possibly the children of the owners of the album. I love this mainly for their strange clown-like costumes.



Here is another picture of the same girl in the previous photograph, dressed again in her clown style outfit.



This is my first Postmortem photograph, it is particularly sad as she is again the same girl, who appears in the previous two pictures, it is sad to know she didn't make it to adulthood.



My next postmortem photograph shows an unidentified little girl propped on a chair, notice her vacant eyes and dropping jaw, also the cloth behind her on the chair, placed there to soak up any bodily fluids coming out of the dead body. This picture was bought online from America.



This next postmortem picture is one of my best, and one of my most precious photos, its so beautiful, showing the whole coffin surrounded by flowers, again this was bought online from America.





Finally, my absolute favourite picture, which I bought quite recently online from England, although it could possibly be an American image, i'm not sure. This a particularly stunning example of postmortem photography, with the slightly open eyes and sad pose, I like the unusual composition of this picture aswell.

Secure the Shadow, Ere the substance fade

I found this amazing picture. I love the houses and graves in the background, and the whole composition, i've found afew outdoor and graveside pictures recently.

Postmortem Nun

A particularly striking postmortem image of a Nun from Palermo, sicily, not sure why there are so many rings surrounding her, but i love the lace, its a beautiful presentation of her

Unusal Memorial picture

I really like this memorial picture from 'secure the shadow' it shows the family gathered around the grave site of their deceased family member, i particularly like the poses of the two young girls in white, very religious and angelic and quite unusual for this type of photograph, i think it has an amazing atmosphere about it

Nice things

I thought people might like to see afew more bits and pieces from my collections, here is one of my favourite cabinet cards, i bought earlier this year, i just adore the childs expression and face and the fur shes sitting on, beautiful



This is my postmortem nun pendant i bought last year and one of my collection of old family photos



one of my favourites from my collection, bought years ago, from an old photo album i got, she was the highlight, with the beautiful little frame around her, i placed the picture on a page from our family bible for this photograph



and finally a picture of my great grandparents