This paper explores a series of photographs dating from the beginning of the 20th century, which portray individuals and families during the mourning of their dead loved ones. In these photographs, the relatives pose close to the photographic portrait of the deceased -portrait, in general, taken while alive- as if he/she was there with his/her own family. This is an interesting and early use of the photograph inside the photograph, used to reinforce and highlight the reality of family ties. These images within images, encouraged a format whose echoes we can hear in some aesthetic choices of current photographic practice. To illustrate this point, two series of photographs -by the artists Inés Ulanovsky and Julio Pantoja- will be analyzed. Their work not only talks from within the inheritance of the missing person (desaparecido) photo but draws a connection with the previously discussed early images of mourning families.