Post-Mortem Photographs

$10 - $15 (based on 2017 prices)
Makes five photographs

To emphasize the element of prolicide in 2017’s La Llorona theme, I created a series of post-mortem photographs to decorate the altar in the haunt’s opening room. A common practice in Victorian society, post-mortem photography served as a means to remember the dead my capturing them in restful poses before their burial. Due to time constraints, I used frames with an aged patina; however, you can utilize the techniques outlined in the instructions for the framed insect specimens or the haunted portraits to create your own distress. Interestingly, these props proved the most unsettling in the haunt, specifically for those who realized that the children in each image were dead.

• One 5” x 7” frame
• Four 8” x 10” frames
• Five photo mattes to correspond with the sizes of each frame
• Six pieces of 8”x 11.5” paper with post-mortem photographs printed on them
• At least four tablespoons of black tea (e.g. Darjeeling, Earl Gary, English Breakfast, etc.)
• One pan large enough to soak the copy paper
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in black*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in brown*
• One 4 oz. bottle of all-purpose tacky glue*
• Thirty artificial roses in pink, red, white, and yellow
• Three small decorative crosses
• Two skull rosaries (learn how to make them here)
• One strand of voodoo beads (learn how to make it here)

1. Boil enough water to completely submerge the paper and pour it into the pan. Add the tea. The longer you allow the tea to brew, the darker the stain will become. Likewise, greater amounts of tea will produce a richer stain. I found that a combination of English and Irish Breakfast brewed for over ten minutes produces a nice, deep brown. Submerge the paper into the tea mixture and soak it until it reaches the color you desire. I soaked mine for eight hours and scattered the loose-leaf tea over the top of the paper to add spots. Remove the paper from the water and allow it to dry. Although it can be time consuming, this process works best if you stain each sheet of paper individually.

2. Once the paper has dried, trim the images to fit within the mattes and glue them in place. You can also distress the mattes by smudging black and brown paint around the edges. For additional grime, a gentle patting of olive paint will give the illusion of mold.

3. Insert the mattes and photos into their corresponding frames. If you plan to display these items in outdoor settings, consider gluing the backings to the frames for added support. Also, the level of distress can be enhanced by painting the glass with Jacobean wood stain. Applying a thin coat and patting it with paper towels produces a hazed appearance and brushing the edges with a swift downward motion creates the illusion of grime.

4. To make the props appear like tributes commonly seen on the altars of Dia de Los Muertos festivals, glue the artificial roses along the frame’s tops and in clusters around their corners. Likewise, drape the rosaries down their sides and affix the decorative crosses to the frames (for a sturdier hold, use superglue). Depending on your haunt’s theme, these details can be altered to include saint prayer cards or locks of hair bound in a ribbon.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.