ESTIMATED MYSTERIES

suggestive images

I won’t be first or the last one if I say that the antique photographs hold a certain peculiar charm in them. There are a couple of particular ‘trends’ in vintage photography which draw my special attention. One is ‘post-mortem’ {discuss them later}, the other is ‘spirit photography’ – both dealing with death.. what a juju topic for today!

I do not feel much attracted to simple ghost stories, but the 19th century ‘spirit photography’ has a certain ethereal aura of reverie, an atmosphere and attraction to them, haven’t they? Be cruel towards the mourning relatives and fake as it was, and despite of all that, I think those images are exceptionally devout, they capture humaneness in all its intensity – pain, despair, beauty, mystery of life and death, chastity, hope and love love love above all.. See for yourself:
 

{Besieged and confused}

{An angel watching over a sleeping little lady}

{I particularly like this one – a ghost lady holding a rose under man’s nose... chillingly lovely}

{Sometimes the images are exceptionally sentimental and melodramatic, aren't they?}

Everyone – from forlorn forsaken brides to grieving parents or children, from heartbroken widows to seemingly unshakable venerable men would sit for these spirit photographers, vaunted mediums between the world of the living and the dead, hoping the ghosts of deceased loved ones would show up during development of the photography – and time after time ‘apparitions’ happened as if by miracle. I guess in those days, photography was a mystery to people, regardless of whether it was capturing images of your living friends and relatives or of deceased ones… 

This maybe raises questions about ethics and whether everything really is allowed in art (and for that time, that maybe wasn’t art at all, just a business of some quick-witted photographers), but nonetheless I think just for now and today, with all the captured strength of human emotions, these photos are an example of really strange wonderful art!!