These Creepy Headless Photos Prove The Victorian Era Was Seriously Strange

Between the grim expressions of their subjects, the prim and proper clothing and the dim lighting choices, Victorian portraits have often had something of a creepy air. But towards the end of the 19th century, a startling new fashion began to emerge. For decades, headless photography was in vogue – and the results remain terrifying.

Incredibly, members of Victorian society once lined up to get these fantastical portraits done, their formal dress contrasting with the bizarre and macabre poses on display. But what was the appeal of these gruesome snapshots? And how did photographers working long before modern editing software manage to master this chilling effect?

Today, many of these images have survived, featuring men, women and children who are apparently headless in appearance. In equal parts spooky and entertaining, the photos’ impact is a testament to the skilled artists who created them more than a century ago. So what’s the story behind this weird phenomenon of the Victorian age?

By the time that Queen Victoria took the British throne in 1837, the era of progress that would come to be associated with her name had already begun. And across the country, various innovations were transforming every aspect of daily life. From electric lighting to flushing toilets, this was a time of incredible change.

Some 11 years previously, in 1826 Joseph Nicéphore Niépce had taken the earliest ever photo, in Burgundy, France. At first, though, the process was ridiculously time-consuming, limiting the practical applications of this emerging technology. Then, in 1839 another Frenchman, Louis Daguerre, improved on this technique, bringing the processing time down to 30 minutes.

Over the years, photographic technology continued to improve. And by the 1840s, a method had emerged that used negatives to print multiple copies of a snap – a technique that’d be practiced right up until the emergence of the digital age. At the same time, people were also waking up to the idea that this new-found artform could become a profession.

By the time of the 1851 census, there were more than 2,500 photographers operating in Britain. That same year, a new method pioneered by Frederick Scott Archer emerged, resulting in even shorter processing times and better final results. According to reports, the Victorians were initially much enamored with these improvements.

Apparently, though, it didn’t take long for 19th century society to become bored with simple portraiture. And from the 1850s onwards a series of different innovations experienced surges in popularity, each promising new and exciting visual experiences. But while some were mostly technological in nature, others were downright bizarre.

On the more conservative end of the spectrum, for example, were developments such as the trend for colorizing images by hand. Up until the 1890s, you see, any photographs were strictly black and white. But there was a large market for snapshots that more closely resembled reality.

So a number of canny entrepreneurs began using dyes and pigments to adjust the photographs by hand. And while some of the results were stunning, others left a lot to be desired. Speaking to the Getty blog in 2011, artist Luther Gerlach said of the images, “There can be real beauty in these, or they can look like a child colored over the lines.”

Another technique had developed that put photography in an entirely new perspective. Known as stereoscopy, this method involved displaying two images next to each other, each with slight differences, and presenting them for viewing through a special device. To the observer, the dual snaps combined to create a three dimensional effect.

After its launch in the 1850s, stereoscopy went on to take the Victorian world by storm. But photographic trends weren’t just about recreating what could already be seen with the naked eye. In some cases, the people behind the camera sought to capture subjects with a far more sinister twist.

Take, for example, the spirit images of William Mumler, an American photographer in the 1860s who claimed to be able to capture images of dead people’s souls. This strange career reportedly began when he spotted the likeness of his late cousin in a self-portrait that he’d taken. At the time, the country was coming to terms with the huge losses of life caused by the Civil War, and the idea of communicating with the dead must have held a particularly strong appeal.

For years, Mumler worked with his wife Hannah, an alleged medium, to create these self-proclaimed “spirit photographs.” But, unsurprisingly, the pair had their critics, too. In 1869 a fraud case was filed against him, and though he was eventually acquitted his reputation had been irreparably damaged. Today, experts believe that Mumler used double exposure techniques to create his eerie images.

Of course, the Victorians didn’t need to turn to the spirit realm in order to create chilling photographs. Around the same time, another strange trend developed: that of the “hidden mother.” In these snaps, women would pose with babies on their laps, only to have their heads or entire bodies shrouded in the final image.

Though the effect was certainly creepy, there appears to have been at least some method to this apparent madness. You see, back in the Victorian era, much as now, it was difficult to get babies to pose for a photograph without wriggling about. And so, the mom would need to be present in order to calm the infant.

But experts have speculated that the women didn’t always want themselves in the final shot. In order to conceal themselves, then, they took to artfully draping fabric about their persons – resulting in an incredibly bizarre effect. So despite its strange appearance, “hidden mother” photography actually seems to have had a rational explanation.

But what of the Victorians’ headless trend? What was the reasoning behind these macabre photos? And how exactly were they made in an era when digital editing was a long-off dream? Today, these images remain among the most bizarre ever captured during a period that was known for its strange and sinister art.

Much as their name implies, the Victorian headless photographs all share a common theme: their subjects are depicted in a decapitated state. But, this aside, there’s actually a surprising amount of variation between the images. And it seems that those behind the camera had a lot of fun putting these creepy tableaus together.

In one image, for example, a young man can be seen holding his own impaled head on a stick. And in another, a woman’s shown clutching her head in a tight grip in front of her torso. In all of the photos, the stiff formality of the subjects’ Victorian dress offers a stark contrast with the sinister yet slightly ridiculous final effect.

If these images were made today, we’d conclude that Photoshop or something similar had been used to create the illusion of decapitation. But the snaps were a popular trend 100 years before the advent of such software. And, of course, we can assume that the subjects didn’t actually remove their heads when posing for their portraits. So what was really going on?

Though the exact origins of headless photography are shrouded in mystery, most sources credit a man named Oscar Rejlander with kick-starting the trend. Believed to have been born in Sweden, in 1813 he moved to England as a young man, where he initially pursued a career creating miniature portraits.

Soon, though, Rejlander discovered photography and became enamored with the medium’s ability to record the intricate details of real life. And in 1853 he traveled to London to pick up the tricks of the trade. He then set out on his own, opening a studio in the Midlands city of Wolverhampton.

But Rejlander clearly wasn’t content with snapping his subjects in a traditional way. And so he began experimenting with different techniques, including fusing several separate negatives together into one photo. Today, such effects can be achieved easily with editing software, but back then this was a time-consuming process.

Probably the best known of Rejlander’s experimental photographs is The Two Ways of Life, an image that caused uproar when it was first displayed. Using more than 30 different negatives, he created a symbolic picture depicting two men’s experiences with both purity and depravity. Unusually for the time, it featured real nudity, which scandalized some members of Victorian society.

Rejlander’s work received an unexpected seal of approval, though, when Queen Victoria herself purchased a print of The Two Ways of Life for her husband Albert. And it was around this time that the photographer created another striking piece. Dubbed Head of St. John the Baptist in a Charger, it depicted exactly what its name suggests.

According to the Bible, the Christian saint John the Baptist was decapitated at the direction of King Herod, with his head then being presented on a serving platter. And throughout history, this gruesome incident’s been a favorite of artists. But rather than imagine what such a horror might look like, Rejlander decided to go one better with a photographic depiction.

In the 1858 image, a man’s head, complete with beard and luxuriant hair, is shown resting on drapes within a charger or dish. But unlike the other headless photographs that’d follow later, the body of the subject’s nowhere to be seen. Apparently, Rejlander originally intended for the piece to be incorporated into a larger image, though the finished work didn’t materialize.

Today, Rejlander’s considered one of the earliest pioneers of photographic art, inspiring what’s now a multi-billion-dollar industry. But his Head of St. John the Baptist in a Charger is also thought to have paved the way for a far more niche development. Over the following decades, the trend for headless photography would really take off.

Yes, before long, members of Victorian society were flocking to studios in order to get their own headless portraits done. Featuring men, women and children, these images are bizarre to look at now – but were apparently the height of fashion at the time. In fact, at least one photographer placed a newspaper advertisement promoting this unusual service.

In the 1878 edition of the Post Office Directory of Sussex, an entry announced: “HEADLESS PHOTOGRAPHS! Ladies and Gentleman taken showing their heads floating in the air or in their laps.” But it seems this description only scratched the surface of the strange images that the Victorians eagerly created.

In many images, the subject’s shown complete with a sharp weapon – presumably the item that carried out the apparent decapitation. A photograph taken in Canterbury in Southern England, for example, depicts a man holding a scythe in his right hand and carrying his own head under his left.

Another photo shows a grinning man who’s kept his head but holds another, identical, body part aloft by the hair. And in his right hand he clutches an ornate sword. On the other end of the scale, some images depicted only decapitated people, with no sign of their missing craniums anywhere to be seen.

In some cases, the technique was used to create fun and light-hearted effects, such as a husband clutching the smiling face of his wife or a man juggling his own head. But in others, the final result ended up looking far creepier. Despite the difference in the images, though, all of the era’s headless photographs were created in the same way.

Like Rejlander, the Victorian photographers behind these macabre images fused various different negatives together to produce the desired effect. Today, the same results could be achieved in seconds using digital editing software – but back then it would’ve been a long and painstaking process. So why go to so much effort to make what was essentially a novelty portrait?

Well, we may never know exactly what appeal these headless snaps held for their Victorian fans. But we can make some educated guesses. After all, spirit photography found its audience in an America still coming to terms with the bloodshed of the Civil War. So might the grim reality of life in 19th-century England have similarly helped to establish this gruesome trend?

Though life expectancy during the Victorian era was greater than in previous generations, at least for the upper and middle classes, death was still an inescapable part of life. And as the 19th century progressed, a sort of cult developed around funeral practices. Now, grieving was visible and even fashionable, its intricacies governed by complex customs.

With that in mind, then, is it any wonder that grim crazes like headless portraits were greeted with such enthusiasm? In fact, this wasn’t the only Victorian photographic trend to experiment with morbid themes. During the mid-19th century, it was also popular to take snaps with the remains of deceased loved ones.

At the time, post-mortem photography was often the only way that families had of recalling those they’d lost. Headless photography, though, appears to have fulfilled a more jovial and entertaining role. And while we may remember the Victorian era as a serious and often ghoulish time, these snaps suggest that at least a little humor was bubbling beneath the surface.