What is the secret of Victorian photographs?

During the reign of Queen Victoria in Great Britain, with the advent of such a miracle as photography, quite strange practices were adopted for modern people. Perhaps this is due to a completely different attitude of people of the XIX century to death, because at that time, and the usual flu could kill a healthy and young person, so death was a common and habitual phenomenon. In our time, it is customary to avoid the topic of death, we try to hide this law of nature from children, avoid it in conversation and be afraid of it.

These photos of the Victorian era demonstrate the desire of people to remember their loved ones, to leave their image with them for life. A modern person, of course, will be frightened by photos in which people who have already left our world are standing, sitting next to their loved ones or sleeping peacefully.

Photos of those who have lived a full life, perhaps, are not so much surprising.

But the footage of a woman holding her dead daughter is already causing a depressing sense of longing.

Even more tragic are the photos of parents holding their young child in their arms.

Apparently, in the Victorian era, it was customary to take photos of dead children. Sometimes the child was photographed among his favorite things.

Often family members were photographed together with the deceased.

Sometimes the deceased were photographed in a standing position with the help of a special stand or assistant. For example, in this photo, you can see the hand that holds the boy's head.

Photographers did everything to give the departed our world as much "live" as possible. For example, they pierced the pupils.

Often, photographers positioned the bodies so that it seemed as if the person just fell asleep.

Yes, the English are famous for their love of animals.

Sometimes in photos, people look so natural that it's hard to believe that this person is no longer breathing. Probably, this is what the family members, for whom these photos were taken, wanted.