Mourning Tintype Photograph

This is one of my favorite photo pieces.  After you examine enough historical photos and a little more research, you begin to recognize certain motifs that seem to pop up again and again.  Often studio portraits involve someone holding a book or a hat as a prop.  Others have a curious addition of another photograph.  Sometimes they are sitting on a table.  Sometimes they are held.  Sometimes they sit on an empty chair.  I find these objects fascinating for many reasons, but one being the re-duplication of an image...an early form of re-photography.  But why did this motif emerge?  In some it seems like the photographed subject is merely contemplating the image, but others have a much emotive tale.  Frequently the photograph is used as a substitute or surrogate reminder of someone who is no longer living.  Were we able to zoom in more to the photo in this child's hands we may well find it to be an image of a sibling or more likely her father who is now deceased.  These photos fall into an fascinating niche of photo history often called "mourning photography".

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