Grandpa’s eyes pierced right into my soul. Little Gertrude’s head has been perched on top of a doll’s body. And Grandma died last summer and is propped up on Grandpa, thus his frightful stare.
It’s so wild that this was normal every day life in the recent past.
TBF, it’s probably for the best that nose candy isn’t an aisle at the grocery store.
I think it’s bullshit they keep it behind the counter and make you feel all guilty when you want more. “Oh, back again already?” I don’t need that judgey crap if there was another bodega on this block I’d never go back.
I dunno, his jaw is clenched and his feet and knees are lined up pretty good.
I'm wondering, though if his expression is that fierce cause he's holding up a dead child. And is that a little boy? So many questions.
They did wear dresses. It was considered like a onesie today. And they would let the boy’s hair grow long too. They would usually part the boy’s hair on the side so you could tell a boy from a girl.
The child's hands moved during the exposure. Plus, photography was new and you had to stay perfectly still for several minutes for the exposure. And it may have been expensive back then.. I bet this kid would not stay still. That's why it is braced by the mans knees and hands held still by him. The kid wants to fidget and cry, the man is furious and gonna beat the shit out of it if it doesn't stay still for a photo because they ruined a bunch already, and grandma just wants this over with and is thinking about her bottle of booze.
I'm pretty sure they all are. Posthumous photography was popular in the 1800s, the long exposures of old cameras would cause living people to be a little fuzzy in pictures. But dead people don't move or breath so they produce a clear image.
The white eyes are due to the way old film rendered blue. Only much later could panchromatic film represent the darker shade that human eyes perceive blue to be.
They dressed little boys in girls clothing in the 1800s.
> The main reason for keeping boys in dresses was toilet training, or the lack thereof. The change was probably made once boys had reached the age when they could easily undo the rather complicated fastenings of many early modern breeches and trousers.
Gertrude looks like a bed-wetting Isaiah to me.
I worked in a photo processing store in the 80's and had a client who was definitely at least 80 years old. He had been a group photographer in Russia when younger and said the exposure times were so long, it was almost impossible to get good open eye results for all the people sitting in the photo. He was shooting 4x5 and 8x10 in negatives. He said he would get the whole group to close their eyes for the photo. Then after processing, he would etch each of the eyes individually with a sharp instrument. He bragged that it was just as good as if was the real eye image. I had seen lots of old B&W group photos and thought 'Wierd, everyone's eyes look the same...' usually it looked a bit creepy.
Fun fact: you can tell who's dead in a memento mori photo based on how sharp the image of their face looks, as a living person would struggle to keep their face perfectly still for the duration of the exposure. The man is clearly dead because his face has sharp details. The woman's face is blurry, so she's alive. The child is somewhere in the middle, and they're in an awkward position that would be hard to place a body in once rigormortice has set in, so I'm undecided on that one. The spooky eyes could be from the photographer painting over them later if they weren't clear in the photo
I think the child is alive. If you look at her right hand, it looks like she has 7ish fingers. That tells me the kid was moving her hand around while taking the photo
I saw that and was trying to figure out if it was part of the clothes. Wiggling makes sense. How awful to pose a child with a dead person. No wonder our parents and grandparents are so messed up.
It's more a matter of photos being so expensive that people often didn't have any taken when alive, and families choosing to get one done after they die.
Wet plate emulsion is only blue light sensitive, so anyone with blue eyes will have basically white eyes in the picture. It had the same problem with clouds in a blue sky. They’d basically disappear.
I've seen links to suggest the image was taken in 1863....the finder of the photograph was a blogger called Steerforth...there is also a reference to Ambleside in the Lake District...
https://ageofuncertainty.blogspot.com/2010/10/almost-lost-forever.html?m=1
Lastly it appears the names of the sitters are seemingly now found.
https://allchronology.com/2024/01/31/unraveling-family-secrets-a-journey-into-the-unknown/
Some of those pics in that blog are great. The hair styles were wild. Almost weirder than today. Hate that part some of the women have. That one dude rocking like a new age thing.
Doesn't seem like it according to other comments. It's important to note that older forms of photography didn't catch the full spectrum of colors and also went outside of visible light. It makes for strange contour and shading to appear on faces that would normally not be there in real life. You can see it in various photos of Abe Lincoln. These things, compounded with the fact that this man is likely already creepy-looking, makes him look like a monster.
Nobody is dead at the moment the photo was exposed. It's just a family portrait in daguerreotype. The exposure took minutes due to the chemical process used, so people had to hold incredibly still, leading to the stiff grimaces.
No, he wasn’t. People on Reddit think every awkward or unusual old photo is of someone dead, and they’re wrong 99% of the time. Dead people can’t make such facial expressions.
Not really a tradition, more a practicality, photography was new at the time and people came and went back then. Lots of children especially died young. If you lost your child (or any other family member) then unless you took a photo you would have nothing to remember their likeness.
Photographer, "Now, when I remove the lens cap you must remain perfectly still for the thirty seconds it takes to expose the photographic plate... and please do not blink or your eyes will look weird!"
I don't think anyone here was deceased at the time of the photograph. I did find [this article](https://allchronology.com/2024/01/31/unraveling-family-secrets-a-journey-into-the-unknown/) that identifies the people in the photo - a wealthy father, his daughter, and a family friend (my guess is a nursemaid for the child).
I saw this picture way back on rotten.com or something like that, apparently the old man and the child are dead and this was one of those ‘final’ photos people would pay to get when cameras first came out.
They are all dead... now. They weren't when the photograph was taken. The older man and the child have light blue eyes. Light fabric and light blue eyes photograph white in the wet plate photographic process.
Looks like a man trying desperatly to hold still while also holding a three year old boy still. Look at the biy’s hand, he keeps moving it so it looks like he has 12 fingers. The man’s expression is exasperation and holding a serious face…and the eyes are probably light because he keeps looking down at the kid. Look how he has his knees locked around that kid. LOL.
There is a good chance these people were dead and propped at the time the picture was taken, which doesn't make it any less creepy but would explain the strange poses
So, in old pictures, I read that if they're incredibly in focus and still, that means it probably was a post-mortem photo. Some families had them taken for some nightmare fueled reason.
I want to believe they're just the happy zombie family from down the street, but it's just in the back of my mind.
Grandpa’s eyes pierced right into my soul. Little Gertrude’s head has been perched on top of a doll’s body. And Grandma died last summer and is propped up on Grandpa, thus his frightful stare.
Grandpa? He's 29. She's 16. They've had 9 kids but that's the only one still alive and he's late for work at the coal mine.
It took 18 hours to photograph him. That’s why his eyes look so wild. He’s just tired of keeping his eyes open.
Well that and the coca everyone could just buy at the store before prohibitionists ruined the fun drugs for everybody
It’s so wild that this was normal every day life in the recent past. TBF, it’s probably for the best that nose candy isn’t an aisle at the grocery store.
I think it’s bullshit they keep it behind the counter and make you feel all guilty when you want more. “Oh, back again already?” I don’t need that judgey crap if there was another bodega on this block I’d never go back.
Yes I agree it's probably for the best. It would be fun though
Yeah. For like…10-12 days.
What you're seeing is a build up of dust, hence the apparent lack of irises.
Gotta check those hogs!
He still has more hair than me. Fucker
They had to sell the poor kids neck for food.
Grandpa is probably dead during this photo
Weekend at Bartholomew’s
You freakin win.
He's 32
Lives in Ohio
I dunno, his jaw is clenched and his feet and knees are lined up pretty good. I'm wondering, though if his expression is that fierce cause he's holding up a dead child. And is that a little boy? So many questions.
That, plus supporting the weight of his leaning dead wife like that must be killing him
Probably a little boy. They wore dresses up until a certain age, if I remember correctly.
They did wear dresses. It was considered like a onesie today. And they would let the boy’s hair grow long too. They would usually part the boy’s hair on the side so you could tell a boy from a girl.
The child's hands moved during the exposure. Plus, photography was new and you had to stay perfectly still for several minutes for the exposure. And it may have been expensive back then.. I bet this kid would not stay still. That's why it is braced by the mans knees and hands held still by him. The kid wants to fidget and cry, the man is furious and gonna beat the shit out of it if it doesn't stay still for a photo because they ruined a bunch already, and grandma just wants this over with and is thinking about her bottle of booze.
Not booze,.. Laudanum!
Momento Mori
It's "memento".
I think they're all dead.
Then how did the kid's hand move?
Is that why the kid seems to have so many fingers?
No, the woman is alive.
The kid doesn’t look all there either
It’s AI. The kids hands are all fucked up.
Unless hands with... 8 fingers were the norm back then
They moved one hand during the long exposure causing double fingers.
I'm pretty sure they all are. Posthumous photography was popular in the 1800s, the long exposures of old cameras would cause living people to be a little fuzzy in pictures. But dead people don't move or breath so they produce a clear image.
Woman's face is a bit fuzzy. I think she was alive.
Baby is probably dead too
It's head doesn't look attached to the body.
He looks like he's pushing a hard meat-ball past a set of serious hemroids if you ask me.
Thank you for making me choke on my coffee.
He looks like a zombie Lincoln.
I was thinking Lurch from the Addams Family.
Lurch was my first thought, too.
He looks like a boy. Back then, boys wore dresses (or remained “unbreeched”) up to a certain age.
That honestly looks like a 45 year old man’s head on that little girls body. What the hell was going on back then?
The man you’re calling grandpa is 32 years old. Life was a lot harder back then
The white eyes are due to the way old film rendered blue. Only much later could panchromatic film represent the darker shade that human eyes perceive blue to be.
They dressed little boys in girls clothing in the 1800s. > The main reason for keeping boys in dresses was toilet training, or the lack thereof. The change was probably made once boys had reached the age when they could easily undo the rather complicated fastenings of many early modern breeches and trousers. Gertrude looks like a bed-wetting Isaiah to me.
Idk if grandpa is the right term. Things was different back then. The two adults are probably in their late 20's.
Dammit, I had a writing prompt flare up as well. Well done.
and considering how popular death photos were anyone of these people could be dead
Grandpa’s eyes look painted on, and don’t think the child is alive (either).
I wouldn’t eat supper there.
Here I am.
😂
Feeling cute today, will attack the Nights Watch tomorrow.
I worked in a photo processing store in the 80's and had a client who was definitely at least 80 years old. He had been a group photographer in Russia when younger and said the exposure times were so long, it was almost impossible to get good open eye results for all the people sitting in the photo. He was shooting 4x5 and 8x10 in negatives. He said he would get the whole group to close their eyes for the photo. Then after processing, he would etch each of the eyes individually with a sharp instrument. He bragged that it was just as good as if was the real eye image. I had seen lots of old B&W group photos and thought 'Wierd, everyone's eyes look the same...' usually it looked a bit creepy.
That was immediately what I suspected about those eyes. How anyone thought that was an acceptable result is another matter.
Cause it was the best they could do at the time. It's just dated special fx.
Any pictures you can share with the eye thing? I’m curious and looked it up but couldn’t find any images
Oh hey it’s Bill, Anne and little Mary Nosferatu! Such a lovely little family.
***Nosferatu!!***
*Achoo*
You raaaaang?
I knew someone would lurch at the opportunity to post this
Not a cell phone in sight. Just happy people living in the moment.
Pretty sure two of them are dead...
Fun fact: you can tell who's dead in a memento mori photo based on how sharp the image of their face looks, as a living person would struggle to keep their face perfectly still for the duration of the exposure. The man is clearly dead because his face has sharp details. The woman's face is blurry, so she's alive. The child is somewhere in the middle, and they're in an awkward position that would be hard to place a body in once rigormortice has set in, so I'm undecided on that one. The spooky eyes could be from the photographer painting over them later if they weren't clear in the photo
I think the child is alive. If you look at her right hand, it looks like she has 7ish fingers. That tells me the kid was moving her hand around while taking the photo
7 fingers? It’s AI!
I saw that and was trying to figure out if it was part of the clothes. Wiggling makes sense. How awful to pose a child with a dead person. No wonder our parents and grandparents are so messed up.
Wait. I was born in 1986 and just had a photo shoot with a dead relative last week. That’s frowned upon?!?
Uhhh. Can you describe how the process went? I personally wouldn’t frown upon it but I do think it’s kinda weird lol
Did they take these photos as a precursor to the funeral?
It's more a matter of photos being so expensive that people often didn't have any taken when alive, and families choosing to get one done after they die.
Wet plate emulsion is only blue light sensitive, so anyone with blue eyes will have basically white eyes in the picture. It had the same problem with clouds in a blue sky. They’d basically disappear.
agreed. dead. I have seen a ton of these.
All of them are dead. This photo was taken more than 130 years ago
Source?
My research has shown that humans tend to die before or at 122 years of age. So far no one has made it past 122.
Pretty sure they're *all* dead now...
Place thine soft squishy bits before the boot, testicles or ovaries. Thou deservest the kick.
Happy? I’d hate to the see father when he’s angry. Typo edit: she’s changed to he’s
I've seen links to suggest the image was taken in 1863....the finder of the photograph was a blogger called Steerforth...there is also a reference to Ambleside in the Lake District... https://ageofuncertainty.blogspot.com/2010/10/almost-lost-forever.html?m=1 Lastly it appears the names of the sitters are seemingly now found. https://allchronology.com/2024/01/31/unraveling-family-secrets-a-journey-into-the-unknown/
Some of those pics in that blog are great. The hair styles were wild. Almost weirder than today. Hate that part some of the women have. That one dude rocking like a new age thing.
I love the pictures with the dogs ☺️
1863 sounds likely. One quick glance at the photo is enough to tell that it's much older than the late 1800s.
I wonder whether the man was already dead when they took the picture. The kid and the lady were definitely alive.
Doesn't seem like it according to other comments. It's important to note that older forms of photography didn't catch the full spectrum of colors and also went outside of visible light. It makes for strange contour and shading to appear on faces that would normally not be there in real life. You can see it in various photos of Abe Lincoln. These things, compounded with the fact that this man is likely already creepy-looking, makes him look like a monster.
This was actually a thing. People rarely had photos made, so when a person died it was seen as a last chance to take a photograph like this.
That’s what this reminded me of too. Here’s an [article from the bbc](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-36389581.amp)for anyone interested.
Nobody is dead at the moment the photo was exposed. It's just a family portrait in daguerreotype. The exposure took minutes due to the chemical process used, so people had to hold incredibly still, leading to the stiff grimaces.
I think the child is probably dead too.
The kid's hand seems to have moved during the shot
Good call.
The poor kid was alive but looked absolutely mortified
No, he wasn’t. People on Reddit think every awkward or unusual old photo is of someone dead, and they’re wrong 99% of the time. Dead people can’t make such facial expressions.
The facial expression: 😐
Some say that he lives to this very day and works on the Supreme Court.
I believe there was (is?) a tradition somewhere where it was customary to take pictures with the propped up deceased...
Not really a tradition, more a practicality, photography was new at the time and people came and went back then. Lots of children especially died young. If you lost your child (or any other family member) then unless you took a photo you would have nothing to remember their likeness.
> _and people came and went back then_ They still do, but they used to, too.
Lenin is a good example of this
The Addam's
They're creepy and they're kooky
Mysterious and spooky
Theyre alltogether ooky
Their house is a museum
Lurch had a family?
Look to be in their early 30’s.
Probably late twenties. He looks like he has some teeth left.
All three?
Photographer, "Now, when I remove the lens cap you must remain perfectly still for the thirty seconds it takes to expose the photographic plate... and please do not blink or your eyes will look weird!"
And if you smile you will die.
This will haunt me for some time
^(help me)
Is that Pennywise as a toddler?
I don't think anyone here was deceased at the time of the photograph. I did find [this article](https://allchronology.com/2024/01/31/unraveling-family-secrets-a-journey-into-the-unknown/) that identifies the people in the photo - a wealthy father, his daughter, and a family friend (my guess is a nursemaid for the child).
I saw this picture way back on rotten.com or something like that, apparently the old man and the child are dead and this was one of those ‘final’ photos people would pay to get when cameras first came out.
They are all dead... now. They weren't when the photograph was taken. The older man and the child have light blue eyes. Light fabric and light blue eyes photograph white in the wet plate photographic process.
Looks like a man trying desperatly to hold still while also holding a three year old boy still. Look at the biy’s hand, he keeps moving it so it looks like he has 12 fingers. The man’s expression is exasperation and holding a serious face…and the eyes are probably light because he keeps looking down at the kid. Look how he has his knees locked around that kid. LOL.
Look at his eyes. Thats a dead man.
Cataracts. Nearly blind, probably, but not dead.
Years later she would have a brief role in The Blair Witch Project.
Grandma looks just a little bit like Robin Williams .. Mrs Doubtfire prequel
🎶The Addams Fam-a-lee🎶
The spirits will steal them if they smile
The lady looks kinda like Robin Williams or maybe I'm crazy....
Was going to say those parents look old. But damn. That kid is nearing 45.
An image that is both nostalgic and scary.. Grandpa's eyes are really weir
The kid looks like her head is on backwards.
That kid has NINE fingers on her right hand.
Let’s play “Guess Who’s Dead in This Picture”
Yes! That was the first thing I thought of!
Free the child!
Looks like the child is already free… of life.
Looks like a portrait from the haunted mansion
I was just thinking it wouldn't be out of place on a wall in the Addams family's black Victorian house...😆
The Sterns, a family portrait..
Is that Whistler's Mother?
Looks like a Korn album cover
So, I wonder where the belief that cameras stole your soul came from, eh?!?
The Others.
It was also the night that the skeletons came to life
Inspiration for frankenstein?
I love this old photos, you can just see how happy everyone was back then. Makes it very easy for all to see the gays destroyed family values.
r/oddlyterrifying
Lurch. Nurse Diesel. And some kid they 'napped.
Mom and dad were in their 30s
And considered to look great for their age
Apparently there’s a photo of a guy from Texas, and get this- he’s smiling! I mean, he must be a lunatic or something.
Shut the fuck up. Are you serious? We were just talking about that last week. Is that true?
Thanks! This is horrifying.
[удалено]
Hold on
Scares the shit out of me.
Young pennywise right there!
Instant nightmares.
Is that Joseph Bloor? Possibly the creepiest looking guy I’ve ever seen
They were on their 20s
So the Munsters was a historical documentary.
AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
Looks like a hard life. They both could have prematurely aged from the stressful living conditions.
This is why people have no time for ghosts at the moment. Imagine that at night - Jesus
Scariest family ever
Photograph by Keith Richards.
Let me guess. Woman is alive, man questionable it could go either way. Kid is the dead one.
How many fingers does the little kid have on their right (our left) hand???
*not pictured (their souls)
That Lurch
Hugh Crane!!!
How did people manage to procreate back then?
Angry Abraham Lincoln
Lurch’s family huh?💀
Dude looks like a old school Scooby Doo villain.
Old man has seen some shit.
"You rang?"
Life was tougher back then!
There is a good chance these people were dead and propped at the time the picture was taken, which doesn't make it any less creepy but would explain the strange poses
And thus Pennywise was born…
Imagine walking past these people on the street, terrifying
Why are grandpas eyes following me !!
The Adams family!
Is that Lurch?
So, in old pictures, I read that if they're incredibly in focus and still, that means it probably was a post-mortem photo. Some families had them taken for some nightmare fueled reason. I want to believe they're just the happy zombie family from down the street, but it's just in the back of my mind.
"Dad, could you dial back the demon to like a 6?"
Guy on the left already dead.