“. . . for their days were long before the days of photographs . . .” (3)

Photography was invented in 1839 by William Henry Fox Talbot and Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre. Pip, who doesn’t even truly understand what his parents’ names are, never specifically states when they died or even what year he is living in. However, by dating them as having lived before photography, Dickens makes it clear that the novel begins as the world was transitioning into the Victorian Age.

Source:

Infoplease: Encyclopedia, Almanac, Atlas, Biographies, Dictionary, Thesaurus. Free online reference, research & homework help. Infoplease.com. Web. 10 Jan. 2010. http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0860364.html.

EDIT: By placing Pip's parents in the days before photographs, the orphan does not even have an image of his parents to connect himself with. He doesn't grasp the concept of a family because he lacks tangible evidence that he has ever had one. In a time when family bonds were considered to be of extreme importance, Pip lacks such connections which undoubtedly impacts his development. Without a family, Pip sees material goods as being an appropriate replacement and therefore spends a good part of his life in the quest for excess that consumed so many of his generation.