Why You Can't Take Pictures Of Sleeping People, Including Children

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

Why not take pictures of sleeping people: is there a logical explanation for superstition?

Superstitions and prejudices are enduring phenomena. Moreover, technical progress not only did not destroy them, but also became the reason for the emergence of new ones. One of the objects of "modern" superstitions has become photography, namely photographing a sleeping person.

Why shouldn't flash photography

Many peoples (including the Slavic, as well as some modern tribes) believe that during sleep, the soul of a person flies out of the body. A sharp awakening supposedly can lead to the fact that the body wakes up, but the spirit does not have time to return. This threatens the unlucky dreamer with disease and madness. It was this superstition that led to the ban on photographing sleeping people with flash.

Why you can't take pictures without a flash

And if everything is clear with a flash and even more or less logical (indeed, who would like to be abruptly awakened by a bright light), then why can't you shoot sleeping people without a flash? As it turned out, lovers of prejudice have their own explanations here too. The photograph supposedly captures the human energy field. In a sleeping person, it is akin to a dead person (in the sense that it is defenseless and there is no soul in the body), and therefore some malicious magician or sorcerer will be able to conjure up the evil eye or curse by looking at the photo.

Probably, magicians and sorcerers will be able to know for sure whether the person in the photo is sleeping or pretending

Why you can't take pictures of sleeping children

There are also some superstitions concerning only children. Some cultures and religions (including Orthodoxy and Christianity in general) attribute to each child a heavenly patron. It is believed that he is weaned from the body of his little ward during his sleep (maybe this is due to the "flying away soul"). And if some evil magician or sorcerer looks at a photograph taken in the absence of a guardian angel, he can easily damage it.

Judging by the logic of the adherents of this superstition, this sleeping girl should have been cursed and jinxed dozens of times.

Where did superstition come from

The origins of these superstitions lie in different cultures. For example, in the Shariah, they generally have a negative attitude towards images of people - be it photography or sculpture. This is usually associated with the fact that the person who created such an image (in our case, a photographer) blasphemously equates himself with the Almighty.

And in Europe in the Victorian era, post mortem photography was very popular - posthumous photographs of deceased relatives. Untimely departed children, parents, brothers or sisters were often photographed as if they were sleeping. However, the deceased could have been dressed up, seated at the table and photographed "a casual family dinner." Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the attitude towards people with closed eyes in photographs is rather tense.

Photographing a sleeping person is not worth it in two cases - he is definitely against it, or you can wake him up with a flash. In other situations, such photography is prohibited only by superstition.