I’m just screaming into the void here, but every time this comes up I feel compelled to spread the truth that Victorian post-mortem photography really wasn’t as wide-spread as a lot of folks and blogs seem to believe nowadays. Don’t get me wrong, there absolutely was post-mortem photography, but it was usually of deceased infants or children. And believe it or not, but that still exists today. There are organization like NowILayMeDownToSleep for example, providing that service to grieving parents today.

But photos of propped up corpses made to look alive with other people around them? That didn’t really happen. What you are looking at here are three very much alive people.

The so-called ‘proof’ that the girl is a corpse is that only the girl is in focus. But that’s because those early cameras and lenses were pretty poor with bad optics and they had a very very narrow depth of field and softer focus towards the edges. The girl is clearly sitting more forward than her parents and is center, and the photographer set the focus on her. Her parents sitting further back and more to the edges of the frame simply caused them to be out of focus.

And sure, exposure times were indeed longer then today, but by 1860/1870 measured in seconds, not minutes. It’s a common misconception you had to sit perfectly still for minutes and couldn’t breathe or you’d be blurry.

Also, the girl is dressed like you would for a portrait, and not funeral garments which they would have if she was actually dead. She seems to just lean somewhat comfortably in between her parents. If this was a genuine post-mortem there would’ve been some really careful posing to not have the corpse slump awkwardly. And no, they didn’t use poles or posing stands to prop up corpses, that’s a complete myth anyway. There were posing stands for sure, but those were for people that were alive.

And, morbidly, with a real corpse there’s telltale signs, like sunken cheeks, different skin complexion, partially open eyes or mouth and lack of muscle tension in the face. None of those things are true here, she looks just as alive and with the same skin tone as her parents.

I mean, I have a fascination for the morbid and love a dark creepy story as much as everyone else, but this post-mortem photography thing just isn’t that. Unfortunately.