Making a Portrait - Cartoon from 1859 Harpers Weekly
I scanned this cartoon of a photographer posing a man in a head rest for a Pinterest board I have started to fight the spreading mislabeling of more and more 19th century photographs as post mortem.
Like many 19th century jokes this one is more than a bit lame. The photographer instructs the subject to look at a painting of a murder on the wall and assume a "pleasing expression". The finished photograph would surely make it to the fake post mortem Pinterest boards! Not only is his head "held up" by a posing stand but he must have a "strange stare" which the "must be dead!" crew sees as a sure sign of death.
Making a Portrait - Cartoon from 1859 Harpers Weekly
I scanned this cartoon of a photographer posing a man in a head rest for a Pinterest board I have started to fight the spreading mislabeling of more and more 19th century photographs as post mortem.
Like many 19th century jokes this one is more than a bit lame. The photographer instructs the subject to look at a painting of a murder on the wall and assume a "pleasing expression". The finished photograph would surely make it to the fake post mortem Pinterest boards! Not only is his head "held up" by a posing stand but he must have a "strange stare" which the "must be dead!" crew sees as a sure sign of death.