A new addition to my collection

I found another gem for my collection recently, it's a postmortem picture of a child from Belgium.

Autumn

I'm feeling abit sad that Halloween is over, it's my favourite time of year, and this year was the best Halloween i've ever had, I spent the day having a tour round Highgate cemetery, such a beautiful place.
I managed to get some pictures, unfortunately just phone snaps but they capture some of the atmosphere of the place.
I adore the stone angels and there are so many of these adorning Highgate cemetery, rising from the undergrowth, reaching for heaven.

A rather beautiful Gothic style vault in the Egyptian circle here, belonging to Carl Rosa and his family, Carl Rosa was a German musical impresario who founded the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1873. His is one of a number of Gothic style vaults lining this pathway.

Another Beautiful monument in the west cemetery is this Sleeping Lion, his name was Nero and he belonged to famous menagerie exhibitor George Wombwell, Nero was a docile Lion, it is said children used to climb all over him.

This is one of my favourite tombstones in Highgate, a sleeping angel, lying amongst the leaves and vines

All the vault doors in the cemetery are decorated with Inverted torches symbolizing life extinguished, another interesting detail is the keyholes on each vault are also inverted.

1. Silently, silently
   They are laid to rest,
   Free from care, over there,
   Dwelling with the blest.
   They shall bear no more life’s burdens,
   Sickness, sorrow, death, or pain;
   In that spirit-land they’re waiting,
   Where with Christ their souls shall reign.

New French Post Mortem

My second birthday present from my parents was a lovely little French Post Mortem Cabinet Card (I chose it) its a small sized card, and I love it, its so delicate and beautiful.

Here I am holding it so you can get an idea of its size, I went through a phase of the bigger the better with the photos I was buying, but I'm getting much more interested in the little ones recently. There's something so fragile and delicate about the small ones that is so beautiful. I have another one this size and they look so lovely together, a good quality image in this size of cabinet card is just unbeatable! 

Here is a scan of the full thing, as I've mentioned it's from France, the child is posed outside judging from the wall behind. He or she has the typical 'death curl' in the hair and the face is just heartbreaking and slightly spooky. This poor child looks so fragile in death, hopefully this photograph brought some comfort to the parents and helped preserve the child's memory.

Birthday Tintypes

I got some lovely little tintypes for my birthday, they came from America, I do adore American Tintypes.
They are all children, two of them feature 'hidden mothers' where a parent had to hide just on the edge of the shot to hold a baby still for the picture, mine just feature an arm and side of head, the best hidden mother pictures have the whole figure draped in black fabric, it looks incredibly spooky.

Here they are in my hand to give an idea of size, they're very small and delicate.

The first one features a baby being held up by its mothers arm, the rest of her being out of shot. I love the way the baby is slumped in the chair in this one, makes it look quite weird. A lot of uneducated people online would say this was a postmortem picture (like they do about any slightly spooky looking photo from this era) but this was in fact a common way of trying to keep a baby still for long exposure times, as were stands with a neck holder for adults, this isn't holding up a corpse but just a way occasionally used to help keep subjects still for long periods.

This next one is beautiful, the detail is so lovely, it features the child's father holding her up with a fabric draped arm, you can see the side of his head in the image, this was originally hidden behind a paper mount.

This third one I thought was just lovely, the child looks so sweet just sat there with a funny face, he or she had done a good job of sitting for the picture as it doesn't look anyone is holding them up.

Disfigured

I was sorting my old bureau out and I found an unfinished piece of work from years ago, I must have not liked it at the time and shoved it in the bureau, but on seeing it again I loved it and really wanted to finish it.

This was what I had to start me off, I got my super fine liners out again and got to work on it.
I'm really happy with the results, seeing as I haven't done any drawing in way too long

A terrible image

I started a new job in January, in StJohns, Worcester and I've actually become quite fond of StJohns, its nothing special at all, but there's something about it.
While I was researching for my dissertation a few years ago I came across a reference to a very unusual monument in StJohns church that I have been meaning to go and look for for the past 3 years and now I work down the road from the church I really have no excuse!

I wasn't even sure it would still be there, as I couldn't find much about it online, but I went to have a look, and there it was in the porch of the church and it took my breath away, it's absolutely stunning.
The monument is to the two sons of Thomas Hopkins, a hop merchant in the city, his eldest son John died in January 1871.
Thomas Hopkins had the monument made to include a photograph of the dead boy, aged 14 when he died, the photograph was taken by Francis Charles Earl of Worcester Broad Street, the image is large, 6 by 13 inches and is set in a monument with stone angels and a plaque to John and his younger brother Jonathon who died a few years after John at the age of 2.

I am currently reading the fantastic book 'The English Way of Death' by Julian Litten and the book includes a little bit about the image and he describes it beautifully

"Although he was obviously placed carefully on the sofa, the freshly pomaded hair is awry and could have benefited from a comb prior to being photographed. It is a terrible image, the child so patently dead and cold. Yet perhaps Thomas Hopkins and his wife took some solace in so commemorating the death of their eldest son" 

I photographed the monument and almost didn't want to leave afterwards, it really is so beautiful and completely heartbreaking.

Some Darkroom work

I dug out a couple of old pictures I did for my A Levels, these ones were inspired by the work of Julia Margaret Cameron and I processed these myself in the darkroom.
I was never very good at darkroom processing and discarded these at the time as failures, but I can see something in them now that I love so I thought they were worth ressurecting
The first one I particularly love.

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.

Recent Additions

The lastest addition to my postmortem family is this little baby

The Ghost of Christmas past

I've just had my annual viewing of my favourite version of Charles Dickens 'A Christmas carol' I can't believe how much I love it, its a pure masterpeice, I just wish it was available on DVD, its just not that good quality online, I have a version taped off the TV before I was born.

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

Daguerrotype

Pictures taken by Kerry Hill, edited and aged by me, i dressed as something from Wisconsin Death trip and got some awesome shots and tried to edit them up to get a daguerrotype/tintype feel to them, i think they turned out pretty well, i love the corn field, really has a 'days of heaven feel'

Research Photographs

Harold Ray Featherstone. son of C.R. and L.G. Griffin Featherstone, 1917 - 1919, buried west Union st Cemetery, Athens, Ohio. Found behind the original photograph was the original obituary -
Harold Raymond Featherstone, son of Clyde R. and Leah Griffin Featherstone was born, February 9, 1917 at stewart, Ohio and Died September 16, 1919 at Athens, Ohio. His age was two years, seven months and seven days. As a very young child he had been ill a great deal, but he had completely recovered from his earlier troubles and become quite robust and healthy.

Late on Tuesday afternoon he was accidently drowned by falling into a cistern which had been left partly uncovered unbeknown to his parents.

Although his body was in the water only a short time it was impossible to revive him. It was a terrible shock and irreparable loss to his parents, as he was an only child and will be therefore all the more greatly missed.

He was an attractive little fellow, full of life and energy. He was known by many outside his own family circle and loved by all who knew him. He was a very affectionate, loving little boy and easily won a place in the hearts of all who saw him.

Said Samuel Rogers in one of his writings, "pointing to such, well might Cornelia say. When the rich casket shone in bright array. These are my jewels, well of such as he. When Jesus spake, well might his be, Suffer these little ones o come to me"

We wish to express our sincerest thanks to our many friends for their kindness shown to us during our sad bereavement in the loss of our darling little boy, also the friends who send beautiful floral offerings, Rev. Strecker for his kind words, and mr and mrs Warlburn for their services.
Mr and Mrs C.R. Featherstone


"Another little angel. Before the heavenly throne." Blackstone collection


"suffer little children to come unto me" S.L. Davis collection

Bedlam

Here are some really incredible photographs of patients from Londons Bethlam Royal Hospital also known as 'Bedlam' taken in the 1800s by Henry Hering