Fake and manipulated photographs have been circulating since the invention of photography. Before digital technology, the manipulation of chemically produced photographs was achieved by retouching with ink and paint, using techniques of double-exposure, or combining negatives together in the darkroom. Such composite and retouched photography also found a place in the mourning rituals of the Victorian era in North America and Western Europe. With the introduction of new digital technologies the appropriation of the image of the deceased has changed. In Turkey, in the era of post-photography, it is not common to find images marked as “mourning photographs” as a part of mourning rituals, but alternative practices do revolve around the image of the deceased which are curiously not that different from earlier examples of manipulated photographs dating back to the 19th century. The practice of taking analogue images of a recently deceased family member to the photography studio for the sake of rescuing them can be observed in Turkey. The motivation to digitize and restore the photographs of the deceased can be considered a way of emphasizing the presence of the dead and as a way to secure his/her place in the family. Rather than acknowledging their absence, they attempt to bring the dead closer. Such manipulated photographs of the deceased can be regarded as types of mourning photographs from a perspective of contemporary grief theories, which are based on the idea of maintaining relations with the departed. This research tracks contemporary efforts to cope with the absence of the deceased through types of digital photographic modification practiced by commercial photography studios in Turkey by subjects belonging to a particular socio-cultural group. Online interviews with commercial photo-modification artists were completed in order to gain insight into this practice and to understand how this specific phenomenon resonates with particular users and finds a place in daily life practices in relation to mourning. Various examples of death-related modified photographs have been gathered through these contacts and visits. The description of the service of modification and the advertising slogans found in publicity materials and websites belonging to the commercial photographers present rich data regarding the discourses formed around these images. Following the critical literature on photography and contemporary mourning theories, this research tries to make sense of a peculiar type of modified photographs of the deceased.