Hidden Mother Photographs
Across Victorian photography there are a series of trends that have caught the eye of modern viewers. One of these trends has become known as the ‘Hidden Mother’ or as an online news article puts it ‘Why is there a human-sized lump at the back of these baby portraits?’ With frequent articles, tiktok videos, reels being created, it is a phenomenon you may have even come across before.
Photography since its inception has and continues to be used to capture the various stages of life, and birth is a big part of this. Parents are keen to document their new offspring in photographic permanence, at their childhood stages.
In the early days of photography this was however not an easy process, exposure time required stillness, which for even a few seconds could be difficult for a potentially wriggling and crying baby. The child also had to be raised on a chair or platform to avoid having to lower the camera, which was not always possible.
A quote taken from the Photographic News in 1865 highlights the often trickiness of the process.
’The difficulties in the way of taking portraits of children are always considered to be very great, they move, they do not always look[ …] Photographers generally look upon children as a nuisance, and frown at the little dears when they are carried into the studio.’
Another source from a similar time offered tips to improve the experience for a photographer dealing with children. The source states how they could try and reduce the exposure times, to prevent the children having to stay still for too long, which could be achieved by picking a fine day with good light.
However often these suggestions of retaining stillness did not work, and there are a number of images that reveal unintentionally the concealed parent in the picture. These are what have become known as Hidden Mother photographs. We have managed to locate a couple from Scarborough photographers and they can be seen below. There was also some local photographers who identified themselves as specialising in children, for example Mary Ann Osguthorpe who stated children, dogs and groups were among her specialism.
Carte de visite by Sarony, detail of arm on left of frame
This first taken in the Sarony studio (above) shows a child in white dress, one shoe off, one on stares into the lens whilst sat on a fluffy animal print rug. Looking closely the viewer can see emerging from the left side of the frame, a suited arm supporting the baby in place.
In another from John Inskip (see below), a child in a white dress with sash stands on chair looking sideways towards the camera. Behind the chair can be seen the distinct outline of a dress most likely of the child’s mother support them for the photograph.
Nowadays with photoshop and AI technology mistakes or additional people can easily be removed from images, but the presence of these often poorly concealed parents in Victorian photographs, highlights the universal difficulty of getting a child to remain still!
Carte de visite by John Inskip showing a mother hiding behind her child’s chair
References
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/dec/02/hidden-mothers-victorian-photography
Robin and Carol Wichard, Victorian Cartes-de-Visite, Shire History in Camera,
Paul Frecker, Cartomania Photography & Celebrity in the Nineteenth Century,
‘Echoes of the Month by an Old Photographer,’ Photographic News, 7 April 1865, p. 158.
William Notman, ’Things You Ought To Know,’ in the collection of the McCord Museum of Canadian History, Montreal.
