The photography of the deceased was a very widespread practice in the 19th century

The photography of the deceased was a very widespread practice in the  19th century , which basically consisted of dressing a recently deceased corpse in its personal clothes and taking part in a final group portrait, with its colleagues, relatives, friends , or portray him individually. The reason why - at the time - these types of images were not considered morbid, may have been due to the social ideal that arose in the Romantic era . In this period there was a nostalgic view of medieval themes, and death was conceived with a much more sentimental air, some saw it as a privilege.

The photography of the dead is a practice that was born almost at the same time as photography (on August 19 , 1839 ) in Paris , France , but then quickly spread to other countries.

The act of photographing the dead has pre-photographic antecedents in the Renaissance , where the technique was the portrait by means of painting in the so-called memento mori : another technique from the medieval period where it was conceived that the end was inevitable and it was necessary to be prepared.

The deceased, on the other hand, were ideal subjects for photographic portraits , due to the long exposure times required by the techniques of the  19th century . In the daguerreotype the exposure continued to be so long that hidden supports were built to support the head and the rest of the limbs of the person posing to prevent them from moving.

In the  19th century it was a very common practice
Reason why will shock u
Victorian-era photograph of parents posing with their dead daughter. 

It was a custom in that era, before people could quickly travel great distances to attend funerals, to photograph the dead so their loved ones could see them as they were before burial.