Tuesday 3 August 2010

New Photograph

I've just come back from a little holiday in london with my Boyfriend. I had such a great time. My favourite part was spitafields market, such a wonderful vintage heaven. Unfortunately I am not very rich at the moment, so I couldn't afford much, but I did pick up this really interesting photograph.
I believe it is of a mother mourning for her dead baby, i wasn't sure at first, but she does appear to be in mourning dress and I have looked as closely as I can at the babies face, and its not looking very healthy!



here are some details of the babies face, I have enhanced it to get as much detail as possible. It was quite common for the eyes to be open in a postmortem portrait

1. unenhanced

2. higher contrast



3. Black and white, higher contrast

3 comments:

  1. That is fascinating, what a find. It reminds me of that film, The Others, where they uncover that photograph album of dead ancestors in that spooky room. Weren't the Victorians a macabre bunch? x

    ReplyDelete
  2. yeah I loved 'the others' that film probably first got me into these pictures.
    I bloody adore the Victorians, can't get enough haha
    x

    ReplyDelete
  3. I absolutely adore this. I love the painted on eyes - they never cease to fascinate me.

    ReplyDelete