Off with Their Heads: Twisted Trick Photography from the Victorian Era

A headless portrait of a decapitated man holding his head.

A headless portrait of a brother and sister with their decapitated mother. Gruesomely, they appear to have done the decapitating.

Headless portraits of William Henry Wheeler, 1875.

A headless portrait of a man presenting his head on a platter.

A headless portrait of a woman with her head on her knee.

A headless portrait of a woman, circa 1900.

A headless portrait of a woman. Unusually, the head is omitted entirely.

A headless portrait of a woman. Her husband holds her smiling face.

A headless portrait of child with is head in his hands.

A headless portrait of a man carrying his head.

A man presents the decapitated head of his friend. The body, rather than the head, has been removed from the photograph.

Headless portraits of a man contemplating his own head, while the woman contemplates the head of a friend, a relative, or her own body double.

A headless portrait of a man serving his head on a plate.

A headless portrait of a man holding his decapitated cranium rather thoughtfully.