Memento Mori

I've been reading about Victorian Gothic and death rituals during Poe's era, because it was a concept that his writing is riddled with. I'm still unsure whether he was romanticising about death, or whether he himself was terrified of that unknown end.

One of the Victorian mourning rituals I'd been reading into was MEMENTO MORI Post Mortem Photography. Since infant mortality rates were high due to untreated diseases and poor living conditions, many families would have to say goodbye to their loved ones. At the start of the 19th century, photography was getting more affordable (for the first time, it would cost less money than getting a portrait painted), so families would immortalise their deceased forever in one final photo.

Sometimes the dead's eyes would be shut, as though sleeping, and sometimes the eyes would be painted on, to give the impression of 'life'.

Wetherby Carboot Sale, Sunday 31st July:

Rummaging through a box of postcards, I found some pretty ones for Bronson and Swanson, but couldn't resist picking up this Victorian family photograph. It's so personal and delicate, I couldn't leave those souls to sit in a cardboard box for 20p.

On closer inspection, I think there's something about this photograph... SPOT THE DEAD CHILD.

Propped up in front of his father, with his eyes pointing in the wrong direction.

I could be wrong.

But I love the dark creepiness of this mystery.

Poe loved a mystery.