Unknown Photo, circa 1870s, via
Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)
"Hidden mother photography" was common in the Victorian era. Due to long exposure times for
daguerreotypes
(ranging from several seconds to as long as a couple minutes), the
only way to take a photograph of a young child was to have the
mother hide under blankets or behind curtains to keep the child
still.
Sometimes photographs were smudged or cut after the fact to remove
the mother, making it appear even more disturbing.
There's something eerie about this genre of photography. The
mothers have a ghostly sort of presence, don't they?And now I'm honestly thinking, as a new mother with a baby, I've
found the perfect Halloween costume that my son and I can pull
off, just this one year.
