Comments | spprs: Happy (early) Halloween

spprs

Happy (early) Halloween

Oct 18, 2006 15:21

Take a nice long look at this photo. Seriously. Check it out. When you’re done, click the jump below.

( Read more... )

link

Comments 13

book of the dead anonymous October 18 2006, 19:51:40 UTC

that was more exiting than the last issue of GQ

And they say Humanities students never have any fun... netgoth October 18 2006, 21:02:45 UTC

Ah, Victorian memento mori. Yep, an interesting cultural anomaly, that is. Here's another side note fo the picture at the top - the reason the child's eyes look so strange is because (I'd be willing to bet good money) they're painted to look as if they are open. Real eyes roll back/film over far too quickly to make a viable image from them. For example: http://www.sleepingbeauty2.com/pages/image%20pages/64.html... )

Re: And they say Humanities students never have any fun... netgoth October 18 2006, 21:05:12 UTC

*fo = on.

No, I don't know why I wrote fo. 'Fo sho, I need more caffiene, tho'.

Re: And they say Humanities students never have any fun... spprs October 20 2006, 16:22:24 UTC

Very cool. Dig the links too. I have some of Witkin images in my screensaver at home.

I didn't realize they painted the eyes. They were apparently pretty good at it. I wonder if anyone at the time played with glass or wooden eyes for the... um... riper subjects.

Something else to consider re: photographing children, besides the practical difficulties would be cost and demand. Depending on the decade and location (Wichita 1860 vs. New York 1890), finding/affording a portrait photographer wasn't exactly comparable to running down to Olan Mills. Given the life expectancy of children as well, when the kid croaked, it was probably a now or never situation for most families to get their first and last memento of the kid.

"Honey, let's take young Aloysius down to Mr. Brady for some wallet shots."
"Fuck that, dear, I ain't paying two bits for a blurry shot. Why don't we wait a couple months and do it when he croaks from the consumption. Hell for two bits, we can buy a new tenament building!"

trufflesfl October 18 2006, 21:49:33 UTC

There was a Victorian Mori exhibit at the Getty when I lived in LA - I went like three times - couldn't get enough!

spprs October 20 2006, 16:24:58 UTC

I saw something similar at the Tampa art museum, but the people I saw were Board members of the museum.

trufflesfl October 20 2006, 16:33:55 UTC

But it was cool how they were each "laid out" on the 3 dimensional architectural rendering of the new museum of their choosing...

They must of used Dick Greco's rendering as a "pole" so he could be standing upright like that - cuz I didn't see model...

careena October 19 2006, 05:37:10 UTC

This is old news to Careena Who Is Obsessed With The Victorian Era. It really makes perfect sense, if you think about it...you have a kid for eight years, but it costs the equivalent of a week's wages to get that kid's picture taken, you only decide to get it done once they're dead and you won't have any more chances.

You should try subscribing to the LJ community "DarkVictoria" for a few weeks...someone's post mortem photo gets posted there about as often as a personals site. It's a great community.

netgoth October 19 2006, 16:00:33 UTC

OooooooOOOoooo... I'm gonna go subscribe to that! Sounds really cool. :)

careena October 20 2006, 03:22:50 UTC

Oh, you will totally ::heart:: it. There's a few too many ads for auctions and such, but the photographs more than make up for it.

mllepaulag October 19 2006, 17:41:53 UTC

ohhhhh