Daguerreotypes - Inherently Creepy

Daguerreotypes were the first commercially viable forms of photography ever. That's pretty special in itself, and the creepy part comes up shortly after this.

In 1839, the process of actually taking the photograph took anywhere from 15 minutes to a full half an hour because of the exposure time. If you were insistent on a portrait at this time, you'd have to sit still for awhile. To aid in this process, they even had a special clamp for your head to hold it in place. It was attached to an adjustable machine which also had a supporting iron bar for your back.

Three years later in 1842, the exposure process could be completed from 10-60 seconds. Imagine how ticked off all the people were back then when they figured out that if they had just waited a bit longer, they wouldn't have had to wait in a stuffy studio stuck in a head clamp for half an hour.

It was now a commercially good idea to take photos of people, since they had the process down to a point where the person wasn't going to fall asleep whilst you attempted to photograph them in their antebellum best.

Now the middle class (and the wealthy, of course) could afford to have a photo taken of grandma. However photos back then were no laughing matter, and smiling and acting in a stupid frivolous manner was greatly frowned upon. Only idiots smile for no reason. This resulted in a great many of the photos coming out, well just seriously darn creepy.

Half of me wants to know what he's holding, the other half just says "no."

This handsome looking fellow is John C Calhoun, 7th Vice President of the USA, S. Carolina Senator, occupier of many other offices, and here staring at you with Eyes of Death. As I promised, he is not smiling.

This portrait is proof of the inherent creepiness of many daguerreotypes, as is the following one:

Only the gods know what terrors this man is plotting for us all.

This equally attractive photograph is that of Henry Clay, another American statesman and founder of the Whig Party, created in opposition to Andrew Jackson. In this photo, he is possibly planning his vengeance for having lost the presidential elections five times. There exist many other wonderful daguerreotypes of him, such as this one and this one here.

The trends get stranger. Photography of all ages can be creepy, however "back then", things were different. Couples could now afford take pictures of their children, alive as well as dead.

The child's first and last family photo.

Postmortem photographs were taken more than any other type of photograph during the Victorian Era, the trend was especially strong in America, where lovely Calhoun and Clay both hail from. (Coincidence? I think not.) At first it was just photos of the corpse resting on a bed or chair, but then others started to get involved. The bodies were posed with family members, or in life like situations (again, with family members.) People would be "proud" of these photos and keep them in lockets, put them on mantels, and show them around to family members and send them off as post-cards of sorts.

 

 

 

 

If you'd like to satisfy your morbid-curiosity even more, please visit this site for an extensive collection of postmortem photos from Europe and North America.

As this was happening, much photography of the living was taken when they were still, not smiling.

Daniel Webster

Now I conclude my post. And, to be fair to Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Clay, here are some pictures of them looking a lot less evil/threatening. In all seriousness, they were two highly interesting figures from 19th century American politics, and you should check them out if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Calhoun:

Portrait of him when he 40.

Another portrait. 

Yet another one.

Looks a bit noble in this sculpture doesn't he? I rather like it....

Clay:

Portrait of him.

And another one.

Last one.

Sorry for making you click all that. Ah well, hope you'll get to sleep tonight!