What do you think?
Rate this book
Beyond the Dark Veil: Post Mortem & Mourning Photography from The Thanatos Archive
Beyond the Dark Veil: Post Mortem and Mourning Photography from The Thanatos Archive is a compilation of more than 120 extraordinary and haunting photographs and related ephemera documenting the practice of death and mourning photography in the Victorian Era and early twentieth century. Supplemented with original newspaper articles, clippings, funeral notices, memorial ephemera and more, the collection will take us on a journey through a fascinating, moving, and melancholically beautiful part of our past. The images in Beyond the Dark Veil speak to us: they speak of love, loss, lives cut short, brave final hours, shattered families, and the depths of the human spirit. Contains 194 images of hand-colored photographs, albumen prints, ambrotypes, cabinet cards, carte de viste, daguerreotypes, gelatin silver prints, opaltypes, real photo postcards, stereoviews, tintypes, and supplementary articles and related ephemera. Contributors include: Adam Arenson I, Jacqueline Ann Bunge Barger, Alex Jackson, Bess Lovejoy, Marion Peck, Joanna Roche, and Joe Smoke. ABOUT THE ARCHIVE: Located in Woodinville, Washington, The Thanatos Archive houses an extensive collection of early post-mortem, memorial, and mourning photographs dating as far back as the 1840s. The online version of the archive, hosted at Thanatos. net since 2002, offers a searchable database of over 2,300 scanned images, with scans of new acquisitions being added on a regular basis. In addition to the main online archive, hundreds of additional images and material can be found in the community discussion forum, including hi-resolution enlargements, genealogical information, and more.
199 pages, Hardcover
First published August 15, 2014
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
January 29, 2023
This was a very interesting and morbid book. Basically is a photograph book of post mortem photographs from the Victorian Era. The entire book contained images of hand-colored photographs, albumen prints, ambrotypes, cabinet cards, carte de viste, daguerreotypes, gelatin silver prints, opaltypes, real photo postcards, stereoviews, and tintypes all related to the post mortem deceased.
Overall this book was beautifully designed and was morbidly intriguing. I would recommend this to anyone who's looking for a unique picture book. Thanks!
Overall this book was beautifully designed and was morbidly intriguing. I would recommend this to anyone who's looking for a unique picture book. Thanks!
February 4, 2017
What an absolutely beautiful book Thanatos Archive put together. The pictures are almost other-worldly, as if I'm immersed in a dream. Indeed, I couldn't put the book down not only because of how wonderfully composed the book was but also of how and why the pictures were taken.
The book is organized as follows:
Deathbed/pre-mortem
Children & Family
Adults
Crime/Murder/Tragedy
Ephemera & Mourning
Pets
There were also a few essays that explored the history of post-mortem photography in different contexts, which I found incredibly helpful considering I haven't really explored the world of post-mortem photography before I followed Thanatos Archive on Facebook sometime last year.
Beyond the Dark Veil is a beautifully melancholy photography/art book that pulls you into this dream-like world, giving you a more intimate look into some of the lives lost in the late 1800s and early 1900s (at least it did for me). I highly recommend it =)
The book is organized as follows:
Deathbed/pre-mortem
Children & Family
Adults
Crime/Murder/Tragedy
Ephemera & Mourning
Pets
There were also a few essays that explored the history of post-mortem photography in different contexts, which I found incredibly helpful considering I haven't really explored the world of post-mortem photography before I followed Thanatos Archive on Facebook sometime last year.
Beyond the Dark Veil is a beautifully melancholy photography/art book that pulls you into this dream-like world, giving you a more intimate look into some of the lives lost in the late 1800s and early 1900s (at least it did for me). I highly recommend it =)
August 6, 2015
I have been on a wait list for 1 year for this book, and it finally came.
yes, it is a strange topic, but well presented with care and respect. I got to attend a exhibit of original photographs, at greenfield Village, next to the Henry Ford Museum-a decade ago. I realize I had seen these pictures, as a child attending flea markets, just never thought they were dead, just odd looking. Everyone, on old photos looks so stoic.
I took 1 star off due the the color, size, and type of font used, under the photographs. You can hardly read them,even with a magnifying glass.
Now, taking pictures of loved one in coffins, is becoming common place these days. What was endearing and treasured back in the day, seems disrespectful, and morbid today.
yes, it is a strange topic, but well presented with care and respect. I got to attend a exhibit of original photographs, at greenfield Village, next to the Henry Ford Museum-a decade ago. I realize I had seen these pictures, as a child attending flea markets, just never thought they were dead, just odd looking. Everyone, on old photos looks so stoic.
I took 1 star off due the the color, size, and type of font used, under the photographs. You can hardly read them,even with a magnifying glass.
Now, taking pictures of loved one in coffins, is becoming common place these days. What was endearing and treasured back in the day, seems disrespectful, and morbid today.
November 11, 2018
Невимовно красиво виданий альбом - золоте тиснення обкладинки, чудовий дизайн. В основному його цінність у зображеннях - архівні фото постмортемів з Америки.
Постмортеми показують, як швидко ми можемо перейти від ідеї що щось є нормою до «Ох, який жах, не показуйте мені!». В альбомі є фото вмираючих, які знають, що вмирають, живих дітей поряд з покійними братиками і сестричками, мертвих садовили чи ставили. Деколи, поки фотограф приїхав, тіло уже починало розкладатися і на фото видні темні плями. Також робили постмортеми тваринок, наприклад, дівчатка оплакують тіло улюбленого собаки.
Автори книжки хочуть запобігти morbid curiosity і показати, що фотографування померлих було загальною частиною ритуалу оплакування. Смерть, особливо дитяча, була ближчою людям 19 століття, ніж вона є до нас - але вже з‘явилися сучасні технології, які, ставши доступними середньому класу, включаються в решту процесу. Прощання стає довгим і усвідомленим ритуалом, який починається від помирання і завершується носінням трауру та брошок з волоссям покійного.
Композиційно ці фото дуже цікаві. Часто фотографи вибудовують цілі сценки, так що здається, що людина спить. Я, так і не зрозуміла ідеї садовити мертвих на стілець чи перевертати їх вертикально.
Тексту в книжці небагато - три статті, які стосуються радше теоретичного осмислення зміни сприйняття смерті, аніж практичних аспектів постмортемів
Постмортеми показують, як швидко ми можемо перейти від ідеї що щось є нормою до «Ох, який жах, не показуйте мені!». В альбомі є фото вмираючих, які знають, що вмирають, живих дітей поряд з покійними братиками і сестричками, мертвих садовили чи ставили. Деколи, поки фотограф приїхав, тіло уже починало розкладатися і на фото видні темні плями. Також робили постмортеми тваринок, наприклад, дівчатка оплакують тіло улюбленого собаки.
Автори книжки хочуть запобігти morbid curiosity і показати, що фотографування померлих було загальною частиною ритуалу оплакування. Смерть, особливо дитяча, була ближчою людям 19 століття, ніж вона є до нас - але вже з‘явилися сучасні технології, які, ставши доступними середньому класу, включаються в решту процесу. Прощання стає довгим і усвідомленим ритуалом, який починається від помирання і завершується носінням трауру та брошок з волоссям покійного.
Композиційно ці фото дуже цікаві. Часто фотографи вибудовують цілі сценки, так що здається, що людина спить. Я, так і не зрозуміла ідеї садовити мертвих на стілець чи перевертати їх вертикально.
Тексту в книжці небагато - три статті, які стосуються радше теоретичного осмислення зміни сприйняття смерті, аніж практичних аспектів постмортемів
June 7, 2022
This book is still one of my absolute favorite purchases to-date! A phenomenal collection of rare photographs—the forgotten and often misunderstood art of post-mortem photography. It’s curated by Jack Mord, the owner and operator of Thanatos Archive, with contributions from a number of individuals on the history, insight, and practice of mourning and photography and how the two became interwoven in nineteenth century America.
Due to how modern society has become removed from the intimacy and inevitability of death, the concept, let alone the viewing, of post-mortem photography has become something in which to be shocked by, scared of, or laughed at. Clickbait websites like Gawker or Buzzfeed stumbled across obscure practices or curious inventions years ago, did little to no research before posting, and their massive reach inundated us with wildly incorrect facts that pushing back on is akin to a leaf battling a hurricane. (Glaring example: the unfounded claims of the use of the Brady stand.) Beyond the Dark Veil is a love letter of a collection that everyone should read. It delves deeply into the tenderness and sensitivity behind the custom, as well as the humanity of post-mortem photography and how it is very much an art. I feel the combination of these approaches to the topic would very much lower the defenses of any readers who, until now, might still have those false and morbid concepts in mind.
The photos in this collection covers a vast array, including death bed photos (these are, to me, some of the most human and heart-wrenching, and are stark reminders that these were once people who loved deeply and lost greatly,) children and families, adults, crimes and tragedies, even beloved pets. The book further discusses props and their significance, geometry of the frames, and the many different methods and sorts of photographs developed during the time period.
For anyone like me, a historian of nineteenth century America with a deep interest in, and respect of, mourning rituals, this book is an absolute must for your bookshelf. It was of an immense use in my own writing, and I cannot thank the contributors enough for this astounding collection.
Due to how modern society has become removed from the intimacy and inevitability of death, the concept, let alone the viewing, of post-mortem photography has become something in which to be shocked by, scared of, or laughed at. Clickbait websites like Gawker or Buzzfeed stumbled across obscure practices or curious inventions years ago, did little to no research before posting, and their massive reach inundated us with wildly incorrect facts that pushing back on is akin to a leaf battling a hurricane. (Glaring example: the unfounded claims of the use of the Brady stand.) Beyond the Dark Veil is a love letter of a collection that everyone should read. It delves deeply into the tenderness and sensitivity behind the custom, as well as the humanity of post-mortem photography and how it is very much an art. I feel the combination of these approaches to the topic would very much lower the defenses of any readers who, until now, might still have those false and morbid concepts in mind.
The photos in this collection covers a vast array, including death bed photos (these are, to me, some of the most human and heart-wrenching, and are stark reminders that these were once people who loved deeply and lost greatly,) children and families, adults, crimes and tragedies, even beloved pets. The book further discusses props and their significance, geometry of the frames, and the many different methods and sorts of photographs developed during the time period.
For anyone like me, a historian of nineteenth century America with a deep interest in, and respect of, mourning rituals, this book is an absolute must for your bookshelf. It was of an immense use in my own writing, and I cannot thank the contributors enough for this astounding collection.
December 12, 2023
It pains me to give this book this rating. I think the project to make this book was noble and the end product is gorgeous. However, as a book it has many problems.
The book is divided into chapters based on themes, such as Children & Family, Adults, Pets, etc. However, I wish the photographs within the chapters were organized in some sort of systematic manner. As it was it was a little slapdash, chronological would have been great. The captions to the photos are inconsistent and sometimes pretty questionable. I wish the editors would have thought more carefully about why they felt the need to consistently describe the corpses of young women as "beautiful" and no such comments on appearance make their way into the captions of men. There is also one caption of an enslaved woman with a white child which I think reads poorly.
Each chapter is also punctuated with an essay or a poem. The essays are shallow, generic, and boring. The stand-out is 'The Soul & Its Substitutes" by Joe Smoke, which is just unfathomably bad. Death rites couldn't flourish until the Industrial Revolution? Joe, what the fuck are you talking about? I'm also a little frustrated that they did not address any cultural difference in death and mourning ritual. The book reproduces photographs from several different communities, including Black Americans, Mexicans, and German immigrants to the United States. However, the essay authors ignore these entirely in favor of generic tropes about Victorian England and the United States. Actually, in retrospect I wonder if the authors of the essays had access to the full book's worth of photos. One of the writers claims that nineteenth-century mourning material culture ended during the first world war, yet this book itself has photographs through the 1920s at least. Weird stuff happening here.
Anyway, I'm keeping this book on my shelf because it is pretty and I'm a little morbid, but not because it has any intellectual value.
The book is divided into chapters based on themes, such as Children & Family, Adults, Pets, etc. However, I wish the photographs within the chapters were organized in some sort of systematic manner. As it was it was a little slapdash, chronological would have been great. The captions to the photos are inconsistent and sometimes pretty questionable. I wish the editors would have thought more carefully about why they felt the need to consistently describe the corpses of young women as "beautiful" and no such comments on appearance make their way into the captions of men. There is also one caption of an enslaved woman with a white child which I think reads poorly.
Each chapter is also punctuated with an essay or a poem. The essays are shallow, generic, and boring. The stand-out is 'The Soul & Its Substitutes" by Joe Smoke, which is just unfathomably bad. Death rites couldn't flourish until the Industrial Revolution? Joe, what the fuck are you talking about? I'm also a little frustrated that they did not address any cultural difference in death and mourning ritual. The book reproduces photographs from several different communities, including Black Americans, Mexicans, and German immigrants to the United States. However, the essay authors ignore these entirely in favor of generic tropes about Victorian England and the United States. Actually, in retrospect I wonder if the authors of the essays had access to the full book's worth of photos. One of the writers claims that nineteenth-century mourning material culture ended during the first world war, yet this book itself has photographs through the 1920s at least. Weird stuff happening here.
Anyway, I'm keeping this book on my shelf because it is pretty and I'm a little morbid, but not because it has any intellectual value.
December 25, 2023
I find the Victorian Era fascinating in general, but especially when it comes to funerary and mourning practices. I think a lot of people misunderstand their customs and just find them morbid, but I appreciate that they were so open about death and chose to celebrate their loved ones lives through various outlets. Definitely an interesting collection of photographs to flip through.
May 4, 2025
2.5 stars, rounded up.
I've followed the Thanatos Archive on social media and when I saw that they'd put out a book, I was very intrigued, namely because I assumed it would be a more in-depth look at their collection.
However, we don't really get anything substantial in terms of the details of the photographs or postmortem photography or mourning culture in general with this book. There are, naturally, a large number of photos; they are broken up by various themes, including children, adults, mourning ephemera and (to my surprise) pets. The photos are reproduced in good quality, although when there are newspaper and obituaries reproduced, they can be a bit too fuzzy to read. It might have been nice to have the text printed as new typescript instead.
But...
The few select essays in this book are disappointing, disjointed, and sometimes strangely inaccurate. One essay claims that mourning photography ended by WWI... when this book contains a number of photos from the 1920s and even 1930s. I think one is perhaps even later (I had to return my copy to the library before writing this review, otherwise I'd check); rather than acknowledge how mourning photography shifted with changing technologies and attitudes towards death, the essay makes a sweeping claim that simply isn't backed by fact.
Much has been written on the over-estimation of supposed post-mortem photos, and while most of the photos in this book appear genuine, there are a few with questionable captions that make me wonder: how do we know this? Are we sure? A number of photos are described as being taken in someone's last hours, but how do we know? It would have been nice if that information (assuming it exists) was actually provided.
A book worth looking through for the photos if you're interested in post-mortem photography, but the text and lack of detailed information on the subjects leaves something to be desired.
I've followed the Thanatos Archive on social media and when I saw that they'd put out a book, I was very intrigued, namely because I assumed it would be a more in-depth look at their collection.
However, we don't really get anything substantial in terms of the details of the photographs or postmortem photography or mourning culture in general with this book. There are, naturally, a large number of photos; they are broken up by various themes, including children, adults, mourning ephemera and (to my surprise) pets. The photos are reproduced in good quality, although when there are newspaper and obituaries reproduced, they can be a bit too fuzzy to read. It might have been nice to have the text printed as new typescript instead.
But...
The few select essays in this book are disappointing, disjointed, and sometimes strangely inaccurate. One essay claims that mourning photography ended by WWI... when this book contains a number of photos from the 1920s and even 1930s. I think one is perhaps even later (I had to return my copy to the library before writing this review, otherwise I'd check); rather than acknowledge how mourning photography shifted with changing technologies and attitudes towards death, the essay makes a sweeping claim that simply isn't backed by fact.
Much has been written on the over-estimation of supposed post-mortem photos, and while most of the photos in this book appear genuine, there are a few with questionable captions that make me wonder: how do we know this? Are we sure? A number of photos are described as being taken in someone's last hours, but how do we know? It would have been nice if that information (assuming it exists) was actually provided.
A book worth looking through for the photos if you're interested in post-mortem photography, but the text and lack of detailed information on the subjects leaves something to be desired.
July 4, 2015
I kickstarted this book because I am excited by the work of the Thanatos Archive. The photos here are carefully chosen to make the people in the past seem so real, like someone you know and would mourn as intensely as these must have been. It's a truly lovely, thought-provoking collection.
I knocked one star off for the design of the book, however. While the glossy black pages do emphasize the photographs, the teeny italicized font that captions them is practically unreadable except in very strong light -- which sort of undercuts the mood of the images, if you see what I mean. Even the text of the few, short essays is miniscule. This is the first time I've read a book with a magnifying glass in hand.
The essays span from useful (Adam Arenson's summation of Death in the 19th Century and Bess Lovejoy's Mourning as Memory were terrific) to not long enough (Marion Peck's Remembering Death left too much unsaid) to not worth the effort (Joe Smoke's The Soul & Its Substitutes was too theoretical for me).
The photos, though, are the purpose of the book and very much worth its price. They range from deathbed portraits to post-mortem photos, records of the aftermath of crimes or wasting diseases, explorations of the changes the body undergoes after death and the ways technology adapted to hold them at bay. Most unfamiliar to me were the images of mourners, both staged and captured in their wild-eyed moments of grief. The dead are objects of curiosity and pity, but the living are truly heartbreaking.
I knocked one star off for the design of the book, however. While the glossy black pages do emphasize the photographs, the teeny italicized font that captions them is practically unreadable except in very strong light -- which sort of undercuts the mood of the images, if you see what I mean. Even the text of the few, short essays is miniscule. This is the first time I've read a book with a magnifying glass in hand.
The essays span from useful (Adam Arenson's summation of Death in the 19th Century and Bess Lovejoy's Mourning as Memory were terrific) to not long enough (Marion Peck's Remembering Death left too much unsaid) to not worth the effort (Joe Smoke's The Soul & Its Substitutes was too theoretical for me).
The photos, though, are the purpose of the book and very much worth its price. They range from deathbed portraits to post-mortem photos, records of the aftermath of crimes or wasting diseases, explorations of the changes the body undergoes after death and the ways technology adapted to hold them at bay. Most unfamiliar to me were the images of mourners, both staged and captured in their wild-eyed moments of grief. The dead are objects of curiosity and pity, but the living are truly heartbreaking.
August 27, 2025
Calling some deceased "pretty" and others not was very unnecessary, but otherwise one of my most treasured book possessions.
February 19, 2023
There is a tendency to misinterpret oddities of Victorian photographic portraits as indicating that the sitter is dead. For the most part the pictures in this book appear bona fide, although I have my doubts about several of the so-called "deathbed" portraits: people did recover from illnesses, even in the nineteenth century. Unless there is corroborative evidence that those portrayed did in fact die within a short time of being photographed, there is no sound basis for these "taken in the last hours of her life" captions.
I was disappointed by the textual portions of the book: naturally one wants to read hard facts about the practice of postmortem photography and descriptions of it by contemporary witnesses, customers, and practitioners, not weary generalizations about photography and society. But of course no one buys this book for anything other than the pictures, which are fascinating and thought-provoking.
I was disappointed by the textual portions of the book: naturally one wants to read hard facts about the practice of postmortem photography and descriptions of it by contemporary witnesses, customers, and practitioners, not weary generalizations about photography and society. But of course no one buys this book for anything other than the pictures, which are fascinating and thought-provoking.
January 19, 2020
Review pending
August 15, 2020
I've always been into the more macabre and morbid and my mother probably wouldn't be too happy if she knew I owned a book like this and to explain to her the beauty of this book would be a feat to large, but I digress.
This collection of post-mortem photography is absolutely stunning. This was very respectfully compiled and presented. Definitely will be one of the books I'll have on display once I have my own place.
This collection of post-mortem photography is absolutely stunning. This was very respectfully compiled and presented. Definitely will be one of the books I'll have on display once I have my own place.
November 4, 2016
A beautifully put together collection of post mortem as well as some mourning and deathbed photography, from mid-19th century up to early to mid-20th century. The collection is divided into several sections; deathbed, children and family, adults, murder/crime/tragedy, mourning, and lastly pets. Each page has between one and three photographs, with a short text detailing the type of photograph it is as well as estimated year, and any and all details worth attention within the photographs. In between sections a few essays are interspersed, some of them focusing on the historical use of photography - what sort of role it had then and how that role has changed in our modern (digital) times. Other essays focus more on the practice of post-mortem photography, as a way of mourning and remembering - and discusses death rituals and differing attitudes towards death comparing the Victorian and partly Edwardian era to present time. I thought the entire collection was done respectfully and beautifully, the essays were very useful in understanding the context of the time when post-mortem photography was popular and active. There are so many things I really liked about this book - the eye for detail, the selection of photographs - many of them truly beautiful and original art pieces, many also being effectual time capsules. I recommend it to anyone interested in a historical look at death attitudes and culture, or has an interest generally in the evolution of photography as a practice and art form.
August 6, 2015
Easily a 5/5 book. I've always loved post mortem photography and think it's a beautiful way to memorialize a loved one. The children section was very difficult for me to look thru and I felt immense sadness looking at each photo. There were so many amazing photos in the book but two specifically stood out to me. Page 93 took my breath away, a small stunning little girl, blonde ringlets, perfect face, bruised and bloody. And page 132 broke my heart. Jealous wife, unfaithful (??) husband and innocent baby all in one casket.
If you can ever get your hands on a copy of this I definitely recommend it.
If you can ever get your hands on a copy of this I definitely recommend it.
June 15, 2015
Una belleza de libro para pensar sobre lo efímero de nuestras vidas vidas.
June 21, 2025
This book showcases an entirely different handling of death and dying than we're used to in the Western world nowadays. I'm a history nerd and just found this book to be fascinating. We learn both about cultural aspects and old methods of photography, both of which I thought were very interesting. It's done respectfully rather than to be voyeuristic to ask the question of how we understand grief and death.
The texts are interesting, although not the focus of the book, and I appreciated the contextualization both for each photograph and in a broader sense. They are however disjointed and not always entirely accurate (life expectancy for example was not understood as an average resulting out of high infant mortality and women dying in child birth but just taken at face value). They still offer interesting perspectives but like. Don't quote it in your thesis. Not that you should in the first place.
I will say some of the language used is a bit outdated but at least from my perspective nothing particular extreme in that regard.
Still, this lacked reflection (p.e. showcasing different cultural norms but understanding them all in the same context and I found the way the photo of the Black slave holding the dead white child was described to be... weird).
The text size and font were very hard to read as well. It just wasn't a great experience and not accessible at all.
Overall, my thoughts on this are a bit conflicted. On one hand, I genuinely enjoyed this and can see what this book is trying to do. On the other hand, this definitely needs an update. I think I will keep it at 4⭐ for now but just know that if this book was published now, this would be lower.
The texts are interesting, although not the focus of the book, and I appreciated the contextualization both for each photograph and in a broader sense. They are however disjointed and not always entirely accurate (life expectancy for example was not understood as an average resulting out of high infant mortality and women dying in child birth but just taken at face value). They still offer interesting perspectives but like. Don't quote it in your thesis. Not that you should in the first place.
I will say some of the language used is a bit outdated but at least from my perspective nothing particular extreme in that regard.
Still, this lacked reflection (p.e. showcasing different cultural norms but understanding them all in the same context and I found the way the photo of the Black slave holding the dead white child was described to be... weird).
The text size and font were very hard to read as well. It just wasn't a great experience and not accessible at all.
Overall, my thoughts on this are a bit conflicted. On one hand, I genuinely enjoyed this and can see what this book is trying to do. On the other hand, this definitely needs an update. I think I will keep it at 4⭐ for now but just know that if this book was published now, this would be lower.
March 30, 2020
I bought this book to satisfy my morbid side as I'm obsessed with the macabre, but I found myself not only delightfully disturbed, but also touched by the historical view of death and loved ones.
January 28, 2025
Beautifully done
May 12, 2018
I didn’t make a blog update for this due to it being primarily photographs with little bits of historical text blurbs between chapters. If you’re interested in post-mortem or mourning photography or general mourning practices and creations of the past, this book is perfect. It’s well made, gold-lined, and just plain gorgeous. It is very somber, however. Make sure you know what you’re getting into before viewing.
June 4, 2022
Uno spaccato (dotato, complice la sua stessa natura “visiva”, di un’incredibile potenza comunicativa) sulla percezione della morte e sul modo intimo, tragicamente quotidiano di vivere il rapporto con essa tipico dell’arco di tempo racchiuso fra la metà del XIX secolo e lo scoppio della Prima Guerra Mondiale… che, con le sue fosse comuni e con le sue migliaia di cadaveri senza nome, porterà via per sempre le affettuose, dolceamare fotografie di bambini raffigurati come se fossero semplicemente addormentati, le loro ciocche di capelli custodite in ciondoli o in orologi – portate via, naturalmente, anche dai passi avanti compiuti dalla medicina e dalla tecnologia, dimostratesi fondamentali nel far sì che molte famiglie, oggi, non debbano più temere di essere costrette a dire addio a un proprio caro, spesso giovanissimo, senza ritrovarsi di questi nemmeno uno scatto tramite cui conservarne vividamente il ricordo. Ma, beh, la storia raccontata in BEYOND THE DARK VEIL ha a che fare, invece, proprio con quella paura, con le strade da percorrere per scendere a patti con essa, con l’importanza e la dignità della memoria, con un dialogo fra il mondo dei vivi e l’Aldilà che può assumere, sì, i colori esangui del macabro, ma che, più di frequente, volendo guardare all’età vittoriana attraverso lenti prive di un superficiale amore per il gotico, si tinge semmai di nostalgia, d’una sorta di malinconica tenerezza…
…
… e, nel caso del volume in questione, di una confezione raffinatissima, che incornicia ogni singola foto con preziose didascalie (particolarmente interessanti quelle a commento degli scatti raccolti nella sezione “Crime/Murder/Tragedy”, in quanto contenenti informazioni utili a conferire alle immagini di riferimento tutto un altro, inquietante e sconvolgente, sapore) e curandosi di proporre al lettore una serie di saggi volti a ricostruire la tecnica e perfino la filosofia alla base della fotografia postmortem.
Un gioiello.
…
… e, nel caso del volume in questione, di una confezione raffinatissima, che incornicia ogni singola foto con preziose didascalie (particolarmente interessanti quelle a commento degli scatti raccolti nella sezione “Crime/Murder/Tragedy”, in quanto contenenti informazioni utili a conferire alle immagini di riferimento tutto un altro, inquietante e sconvolgente, sapore) e curandosi di proporre al lettore una serie di saggi volti a ricostruire la tecnica e perfino la filosofia alla base della fotografia postmortem.
Un gioiello.
December 26, 2016
Que chulada de libro <3
March 20, 2018
It's a lovely little book, beautifully conceived and executed. Gorgeously bound, its high quality pages contain some stunning reproductions and an informative overview of death photography, perfect for those with general interests but easily appreciated by those invested in its collection and research.
With the publishing of Beyond The Dark Veil, I hoped that the potential of a new book's pages would marshal forth the long awaited expertise I found lacking in Thanatos' online content. After years of guarding their images like esoteric knowledge, a mystery only unshrouded by a paid membership to their website, it seemed reasonable to expect them to finally draw back their own curtains to prove themselves the foremost authority on death photography. Unfortunately, I found very little more than a few biographical reconstructions of the photograph's subjects imparting more to the stigmatized and misunderstood niche in photography's timeline.
The book ultimately succeeds in its physical treatment of the images as objects of beauty, and perhaps this was their sole means of mitigating the fearfulness which describes contemporary attitudes about death. But for those of us in the field who are looking to our contemporaries to light the way for scholarship, it is, like life, a beauty fleeting.
With the publishing of Beyond The Dark Veil, I hoped that the potential of a new book's pages would marshal forth the long awaited expertise I found lacking in Thanatos' online content. After years of guarding their images like esoteric knowledge, a mystery only unshrouded by a paid membership to their website, it seemed reasonable to expect them to finally draw back their own curtains to prove themselves the foremost authority on death photography. Unfortunately, I found very little more than a few biographical reconstructions of the photograph's subjects imparting more to the stigmatized and misunderstood niche in photography's timeline.
The book ultimately succeeds in its physical treatment of the images as objects of beauty, and perhaps this was their sole means of mitigating the fearfulness which describes contemporary attitudes about death. But for those of us in the field who are looking to our contemporaries to light the way for scholarship, it is, like life, a beauty fleeting.
February 25, 2022
Fascinating book, weirdly beautiful and morbidly gripping.
I was slightly unsatisfied--I really wanted as much information as possible on each of the subjects such as their cause of death, where the picture came from and exact dates.
I think also that the book could have been more in depth. I would have liked information on regional styles, rich versus poor people's pictures, ethnic styles, mourning customs followed in the pictures that are no longer followed and how this custom came about, flourished and then basically died out.
This is a lovely artistic book. I'd like to challenge the Thanatos Archive to put out more on this topic with a deeper dive into the solid information that they only just touch on.
I was slightly unsatisfied--I really wanted as much information as possible on each of the subjects such as their cause of death, where the picture came from and exact dates.
I think also that the book could have been more in depth. I would have liked information on regional styles, rich versus poor people's pictures, ethnic styles, mourning customs followed in the pictures that are no longer followed and how this custom came about, flourished and then basically died out.
This is a lovely artistic book. I'd like to challenge the Thanatos Archive to put out more on this topic with a deeper dive into the solid information that they only just touch on.
August 25, 2022
J’ai trouvé ce livre magnifique. Les photos Post-Mortem qu’il renferme m’ont bercé dans une douce et étrange mélancolie. J’ai pris le temps de m’arrêter et d’imaginer la vie de tous ces gens. C’est étrange à dire, difficile à expliquer. Je pense qu’il faut aimé ce qui est macabre et avoir une certaine curiosité morbide pour bien comprendre et apprécier ce livre. Chose certaine, il préserve la mémoire de ceux et celles qui ont vécu avant nous.
À ajouter sans hésiter à son cabinet de curiosité. Le mien ira se joindre à ma maigre collection de photos Post-Mortem.
PS je me serais bien passé des commentaires inutiles et des présomptions qui se trouvent sous chacune des photos. C’était impertinent.
À ajouter sans hésiter à son cabinet de curiosité. Le mien ira se joindre à ma maigre collection de photos Post-Mortem.
PS je me serais bien passé des commentaires inutiles et des présomptions qui se trouvent sous chacune des photos. C’était impertinent.
April 23, 2018
If you appreciate Victorian postmortem photography as much as I do, this beautifully-designed book is an absolute must for your personal library. The photographs are enthralling, haunting, and at times heart wrenching. Beyond the Dark Veil is an intimate peek into what some would consider to be one of the darker aspects of Victorian culture. Although I would have preferred the text be a bit larger (the small print is rather hard on the eyes after awhile and some of it I needed a magnifying glass to read), I still found the book enjoyable and beneficial as a tool to help 21st century readers gain a better understanding of the attitudes and customs connected with death in the 19th century.
January 1, 2016
Simply lovely.
This book was beautifully written and nice to look at. I was somewhat disappointed to see the same photograph used in more than one place to demonstrate a specific theme in mourning photography or practice, and I agree that the font size for photo captions was a tad small.
Other than those minor complaints, the book is beautifully done with a great attention to detail and appreciation of subject matter. Even the book design itself was created to resemble the artistic flourishes that might be seen on a photograph from the Victorian era.
This book was beautifully written and nice to look at. I was somewhat disappointed to see the same photograph used in more than one place to demonstrate a specific theme in mourning photography or practice, and I agree that the font size for photo captions was a tad small.
Other than those minor complaints, the book is beautifully done with a great attention to detail and appreciation of subject matter. Even the book design itself was created to resemble the artistic flourishes that might be seen on a photograph from the Victorian era.
February 5, 2020
What a wonderful book! I loved all of the art! It's so beautiful and sad! It is dark, but if you love Victorian mourning customs, this is it!
December 6, 2017
This book was a tie-in with a 2013 exhibition of Victorian post-mortem photography. To our eyes the Victorian obsession with death can seem very morbid when compared to today’s more relaxed attitudes. The cult of mounring in the 19th century was instituted by Queen Victoria after the death of her beloved Albert and continued until her death. It finally ceased with the mass carnage of the First World War when often there wasn’t a body to bring home to bury as they often lay in a foreign land . Also the mass wearing of black was deemed unpatriotic.
But we don’t live with death a closely as the Victorians did. One of the more disturbing facts that I learned from this book was that a child would often not be named until it was a year old due to the high infant mortality rate. For the first year of its life it was known as ‘baby’. Women were often likely to die in childbirth as a walk through a Victorian cemetery and a look at the tombstones dedicated to women will confirm. In the 19th century death was also more likely to happen at home with the deceased laid out in a coffin with the lid removed in a front room for people to come in and pay their respects. Nowadays the death process has been taken over by medicine with people almost certainly dying in a hospital or hospice, with the body then taken care of by a undertaker instead of the family and then either cremated or buried. The process of death can now seem very impersonal.
I have to admit that when my cat died suddenly I did take his body out and take a photograph of him under his favourite bush as a memento. The urge to have a final image of him was too great and the Victorian middle class obviously felt the same as the book features post mortem images of much missed pets, some with their owners. Another sobering fact from Beyond the Dark Veil was that a deathbed or post mortem photograph was often the only image that the person would have in their lifetime. The book features portraits of children on their deathbeds which some readers may find upsetting. This is then followed by children, young people, husbands and wives and sometimes entire families. The first recorded set of quintuplets who all died after a few hours makes a heart breaking photo.
Photography was a new phenomenon to the Victorians. Here was an invention that could almost give people everlasting life. The dead and the dying lived on not only in their loved one memories but also in a physical form. It was an age in which many exciting discoveries were made such as electricity and the telegraph and photography was one of the major ones. The Victorians were also intrigued with the afterlife which is when Spiritualism and contacting the dead via seances became popular and this culminated in dubious spirit photographs. In rural US communities there were travelling photographers who went from community to community and often the deceased would have already have begun to decompose which the photographer would then have to conceal. One haunting image is of the deceased in their coffin surrounded by their family with a bored looked wagon driver watching the scene from behind. In the background is a single farmhouse. The scene’s backdrop is the large and empty prairie and as the caption said it demonstrated their isolation. There are also photos of murdered families with accompanying newspaper clippings. Sometimes the photos were printed up as postcards – one image of a Mexican family holding up their dead father to the camera’s gaze may have intended theirs for relatives who were unable to attend the funeral.
Most of the images in the book are anonymous although sometimes the photographer is credited. Some of them are carefully choregraphed and the subject looks as if they are asleep. Several of the photographs depict a parent holding their dead child in their arms or sitting on their lap – I can’t imagine how that must have felt.
There are also short essays accompanying the photos although my only quibble with the book would be the choice of font colour because it rendered the printing faint and difficult to read in the low light conditions in which I was reading.
But we don’t live with death a closely as the Victorians did. One of the more disturbing facts that I learned from this book was that a child would often not be named until it was a year old due to the high infant mortality rate. For the first year of its life it was known as ‘baby’. Women were often likely to die in childbirth as a walk through a Victorian cemetery and a look at the tombstones dedicated to women will confirm. In the 19th century death was also more likely to happen at home with the deceased laid out in a coffin with the lid removed in a front room for people to come in and pay their respects. Nowadays the death process has been taken over by medicine with people almost certainly dying in a hospital or hospice, with the body then taken care of by a undertaker instead of the family and then either cremated or buried. The process of death can now seem very impersonal.
I have to admit that when my cat died suddenly I did take his body out and take a photograph of him under his favourite bush as a memento. The urge to have a final image of him was too great and the Victorian middle class obviously felt the same as the book features post mortem images of much missed pets, some with their owners. Another sobering fact from Beyond the Dark Veil was that a deathbed or post mortem photograph was often the only image that the person would have in their lifetime. The book features portraits of children on their deathbeds which some readers may find upsetting. This is then followed by children, young people, husbands and wives and sometimes entire families. The first recorded set of quintuplets who all died after a few hours makes a heart breaking photo.
Photography was a new phenomenon to the Victorians. Here was an invention that could almost give people everlasting life. The dead and the dying lived on not only in their loved one memories but also in a physical form. It was an age in which many exciting discoveries were made such as electricity and the telegraph and photography was one of the major ones. The Victorians were also intrigued with the afterlife which is when Spiritualism and contacting the dead via seances became popular and this culminated in dubious spirit photographs. In rural US communities there were travelling photographers who went from community to community and often the deceased would have already have begun to decompose which the photographer would then have to conceal. One haunting image is of the deceased in their coffin surrounded by their family with a bored looked wagon driver watching the scene from behind. In the background is a single farmhouse. The scene’s backdrop is the large and empty prairie and as the caption said it demonstrated their isolation. There are also photos of murdered families with accompanying newspaper clippings. Sometimes the photos were printed up as postcards – one image of a Mexican family holding up their dead father to the camera’s gaze may have intended theirs for relatives who were unable to attend the funeral.
Most of the images in the book are anonymous although sometimes the photographer is credited. Some of them are carefully choregraphed and the subject looks as if they are asleep. Several of the photographs depict a parent holding their dead child in their arms or sitting on their lap – I can’t imagine how that must have felt.
There are also short essays accompanying the photos although my only quibble with the book would be the choice of font colour because it rendered the printing faint and difficult to read in the low light conditions in which I was reading.
December 6, 2023
This was mainly a book of photographs, so there isn't much to say on narrative or about too much commentary. Though I will say the few essays that were presented within were extremely well written and shed a lot of light not only on how we treat death today, but also showed me a lot of the way that mid 19th century people held death and how they kept it far closer than we do today, because it lived with them and beside them. Really harrowing look at the way that death felt like even more of a certainty than it does today. This was the first place that I learned about how babies were typically unnamed for the first year of life because of how high the infant mortality rate was. I recently had a conversation about pregnancy, birth and modern medicine in which that same infant mortality rate came up, and I was shocked to find out that it was way more than 50%. My mind was truly blown.
And the photos in this book brought that concept even closer.
To me, this felt primarily like a photography book. A museum of sorts. And the shots within are stark, and authentic views of the way that these "ancient" photographs were used. Today, I could never imagine having a child pass away and propping them up, staging a setting and then taking a photograph (one that certainly required long exposure) and keeping that with me at all times or hanging it in the house. The photos shown were of all ages, but the ones of the infants are the ones that hit the hardest. The skills of the people who presented the bodies was very high, as many of them looked as if they were simply sleeping, though some of them seemed to be in a state where it was in no way able to be hidden.
I was also very compelled by the chapter on crimes and tragedies. The photos were mostly the same, but the stories behind them (especially the way the old newspaper clippings were written) was very raw, very interesting.
Overall, very cool book but I'd say maybe not for the faint of heart or the squeamish. It's not graphic at all, unless you pull yourself in and really let the death sit with you. This feels like a 'perfect' coffee table book, especially with the high quality in which it seems bound in a faux-leather with the gold embossed text. But there's a darkness about it that feels a little macabre and I could easily see how it could be construed as 'offensive'. But otherwise, an excellent piece. It very much nails its role as a period piece.
I recommend it! Though it might be something more worth finding in a book store or library to peruse before deciding if it's worth having display at your house.
And the photos in this book brought that concept even closer.
To me, this felt primarily like a photography book. A museum of sorts. And the shots within are stark, and authentic views of the way that these "ancient" photographs were used. Today, I could never imagine having a child pass away and propping them up, staging a setting and then taking a photograph (one that certainly required long exposure) and keeping that with me at all times or hanging it in the house. The photos shown were of all ages, but the ones of the infants are the ones that hit the hardest. The skills of the people who presented the bodies was very high, as many of them looked as if they were simply sleeping, though some of them seemed to be in a state where it was in no way able to be hidden.
I was also very compelled by the chapter on crimes and tragedies. The photos were mostly the same, but the stories behind them (especially the way the old newspaper clippings were written) was very raw, very interesting.
Overall, very cool book but I'd say maybe not for the faint of heart or the squeamish. It's not graphic at all, unless you pull yourself in and really let the death sit with you. This feels like a 'perfect' coffee table book, especially with the high quality in which it seems bound in a faux-leather with the gold embossed text. But there's a darkness about it that feels a little macabre and I could easily see how it could be construed as 'offensive'. But otherwise, an excellent piece. It very much nails its role as a period piece.
I recommend it! Though it might be something more worth finding in a book store or library to peruse before deciding if it's worth having display at your house.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews