Death Conference Talk at Grenfell Campus,
Memorial University of Newfoundland
September 2011
Sleeping Beauty: Post Mortem
Photographic Portraiture of Children
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| From "Extended Moments" 1983 |
You may wonder why it is that I would
want to collect post mortem portraiture. As a visual artist, I have been
interested in mortality and the transience of life, focusing on the artifacts
that prolong the signs of our existence. This began with memento mori still
life and images using bad taxidermy. I could no longer ignore that I was really
exploring my own mortality, so my current research has been focused on human
temporality and the passage of our bodies from dust to dust, so to speak. I am
also very interested in the artifacts we create as memorials.
The painted portrait has the power
to preserve for eternity an individual’s likeness and presence within a family
gallery at a specific time in their life. When painted well, it can convey
personality, although often idealized and perfected. The portrait can
communicate status, wealth, and even one’s goals. Before the invention of
photography, only the wealthy could afford to hire painters and portrait
artists to make likenesses of family members.
Once photography gained a foothold
in the 1840’s and prices dropped to a few cents so that anyone could get a photograph
made, everyone was keen to have a portrait of each member of the family for the
wall or carte-de-visite photo album. Many millions of portraits were made in
the early years of photography, and the numbers continued to climb as the
hunger for a visual family record spread to all classes and sectors of society
worldwide.
Portraits were at this time formal
affairs, with a special trip to the photographic emporium in order to have a
likeness made in one’s finest clothes. These events were usually at important
milestones in a person’s life: coming of age, marriage, anniversaries, etc. Small
children were hard to control or keep still for the long exposure times
necessary when sitting for a photographic portrait in the 19th
century. So few young children or infants appear in the photo record, unless
held firmly in a mother’s lap or seated on a chair with someone’s hand on their
shoulder.
Memorializing the dead has also had
a very long history and pre-history and makes up a separate portrait genre. It
takes on many forms, from written and oral tributes, to tomb sculpture and
portraits, death masks and memorial architecture.
The posthumous portrait painting of
the recently deceased was common in some strata of society and can be seen as a
precursor to post mortem portraiture today. It was seen as a way to remember
the personage as a once living being, idealized in a final portrait that lives
on.
In the age of photography, however,
the practice of post mortem portraiture was different in that it was far more
ubiquitous and far more unforgiving in its documentation of reality. In the
mid-19th century we find the production of post mortem photographic
portraits alongside the continuing production of posthumous mourning paintings.
The big difference in motivation
and outcome is that the painters created the illusion of life in death, while the
photographs were a much more imperfect illusion or pretense of sleep. As Jay
Ruby writes in his seminal book “Secure the Shadow,” ...
“… post mortem photographs constitute a failed attempt at trompe l’oeil
which fooled no one. Their function was not to keep the dead alive, but to
enable mourners to acknowledge their loss.” (p.43)
The evolution of how society views
death and the process of dying has effected how we face it in images. When
death was part of family life, taking place at home and in the presence of the
whole family, we were accustomed to it as a natural process. As society shifted
towards a denial of the process of death, to where others undertook the task of dealing with the dying and dead, we lost the
first-hand contact with the body of a dead person. By the 1930’s professionals
had completely taken over all aspects of a person’s passage from sick bed to
cemetery. Family members were simply observers and mourners, and even then were
not allowed to see certain stages of preparation.
This past familiarity with death as part of life meant that it was
one of those passages that was also photographed. Professional photographers
and studios openly advertized post mortem portraiture along with all their
other photographic services. In the mid-19th century, articles
appeared in trade journals advising photographers on how to properly and
artistically photograph the dead. Studios advertized their skills at making
post mortem portraits in the convenience of the family’s own home. Mourning
families sought out these services to display the results in their homes or to
send them to far away relatives who may have missed the funeral.
The embossed memorial card was a common
Victorian option to the final portrait and was often handed out at funerals or
given to relatives.
The deceased’s name was printed on a card with a poetic
sentiment or sometimes a small photo-portrait of the person in life.
Other photo-based memorial cards
would use an earlier life portrait and surround it with a scroll motif or
vignette.
This scroll-work border indicated through
its symbolism that the person depicted was no longer of this world.
Photographs of an arranged display
of the flowers that were sent to the funeral could also act as a memorial.
Sometimes a photographic portrait could be found amidst these flowers.
Following a rigid Victorian code,
family members who were photographed in the days, months and years following a
death would be seen wearing various stages of mourning clothes as dictated by traditions of full
mourning, half mourning, etc.
When tragedy struck and an infant
was stillborn or a small child died, this usually meant that there had not yet been
the opportunity to obtain a photographic portrait of these new arrivals.
So after a death, there was a
strong motivation for families to obtain a last portrait or family group. A
baby would be held in a mother’s arms as if asleep, sometimes surrounded by
other family members. There was only a brief opportunity to have a final visual
record made of the youngest. Most of the older family members may have already
been photographed, so they were therefore less likely
to be carted off to the photographer’s studio for a coffin portrait, although this
was done as well. An early advertising slogan suggested “Secure the Shadow,
‘Ere the Substance Fades”. This may be one reason why we find the child or
infant dominating the tradition of post mortem portraiture.
In the 19th C when
people were increasingly migrating to industrialized cites, the rates of infant
mortality actually increased when compared to the 18th C, reaching as
high as 30 to 50%. This alone could also account for the predominance of postmortem
portraiture being of children and infants.
At first, the dead child was
usually photographed at home, sometimes close up and with tenderness and dressed
in their finest christening gown.
They were often depicted with the
sentiments of “the last sleep,” lying in cradles or on beds or cots. The
sentiment of a final sleep pervaded the aesthetics of these portraits in the
latter half of the 19th C. especially.
They might be seated in their baby
carriages.
Sometimes, if a little older, they
were seated in chairs, even with their eyes open in a pose that was supposed to
feign life.
Older children were posed with
favorite toys, teddies, and wearing ornate dresses or new britches. Hair was
often curled or combed.
It may also be worth noting that in
the 19th and early 20th Centuries the newly dead,
ironically, often looked healthy and robust compared to the dying today, when
many patients are kept alive until they waste away.
When we look at these images solely
from a sociological or historical perspective, we may not necessarily see their
aesthetic attributes. What I find prominent in many is the sublime and tender
treatment given to a very difficult subject when in the hands of a capable
photographer.
Lighting is used in descriptive and
often emotional ways, settings and accompaniments are thoughtful and even
elegant, and many have personal touches. Of course, not all photographers had
the skill nor the aptitude to do this well, but most seem to have tried.
In this early hand-tinted ambrotype
of a child in a coffin we see that there is no attempt to deny the context,
although the clasped hands and added color seem to contradict that.
In this tintype of a young lady
lying on a day bed, we see that the photographer has given her cheeks color, an
attempt to infer sleep.
In other photographs we see the
child lying on sofas or seated in chairs in homes that seem to be middle class.
Some may be in the photographer’s
studio.
But other photographs show much less
opulence and are obviously taken by a non-professional photographer with an
amateur camera for the family record right on the back stoop.
The portraits required available
light, so the child was often photographed in a rough backyard or driveway.
In spite of the home-spun
surroundings, we see lacy garments, flowers and candles that attest to the
solemnity and concern these impoverished families were still able to achieve
for their loved one. I especially appreciate the Coke bottle candle stands here
on the right.
The elaborate care and attention to
presentation is clearly seen here inside a modest chapel in Peru.
In the 1880’s in the United States
especially, when funerals in general became more elaborate, images were made of
the family group standing around the casket; first at the gravesite, then by
the 20th century, in the funeral home.
By the 20
th century, the
emphasis shifted from the post mortem portrait to the family group and their
grief, and to the funeral as a social event.
This seems to be even more dominant
in photos I have from Eastern Europe where we often see the whole family
gathered around the coffin for the funeral portrait.
In America, the view of the
deceased was no longer close up but evolved to a ¾ view in the casket, then the
whole casket surrounded by flowers. In some, there is no sign of the body at
all; just the event with a casket.
By the 1880’s photographic journals
no longer carried articles about photographing the dead, partly because
professionals already knew how to do it, and there was a dwindling desire to
bring attention to the practice. Among the last was an 1891 advertisement for
the use of artificial light when photographing the corpse.
However, the practice of post
mortem portraiture continues unabated throughout the 20
th and now
the 21
st centuries, but it is done without advertizing or open
discussion. The results are shared only among family intimates.
By the middle of the 20th
century, professional services were no longer necessary, as anyone could access
and use a small camera, a Polaroid, or more recently, a digital camera. The act
of making a remembrance portrait has become a private family act for many.
Many people still want a portrait
of a newly lost infant, but are unwilling to ask for such service. Many
photographers are often unwilling to offer it, let alone actually provide it. Although
some believe that photographs of the dead are unhealthy and prolong one’s
inability to face grief, other grief professionals and health care workers see
the value of a visual record of such an event, as it may be needed later if the
parents need help with closure or accepting their loss. The authors of a 1985
pamphlet: “A Most Important Picture: A Very Tender Manual for Taking Pictures
of Stillborn Babies and Infants Who Die” from the Centering Corp. of Omaha
Nebraska, explain:
“The
importance of pictures: There are four basic reasons for taking pictures of
infants who have died: A picture helps the family confirm the reality of their
baby’s life and death. A picture shows them exactly how the baby looked so they
do not have to rely on memory or fantasy. A picture gives them one way to share
their baby with other people. A picture may be the only tangible memory of
their baby.” (Joy Johnson, Marvin
Johnson, James H. Cunningham, and Irwin J. Weinfeld)
Even though everybody now has easy
access through personal digital cameras, some still prefer the services of a
skilled professional photographer. Today there is a website which features
contemporary professional post-mortem portrait services made available at no
cost to parents who have lost a child:
nowilaymedowntosleep.org.
Now
I Lay Me Down To Sleep specializes in infant bereavement photography.
Co-founded in 2005 by Cheryl Haggard, whose fourth child died just six days
after his birth, and photographer Sandy Puc, the group connects a network of
professional photographers, who provide their services free of charge, with
parents grieving the loss of a new child. The professional results are far more
emotionally charged, loving and atmospheric than what the layperson would
likely capture with their own point-and-shoot camera at such a stressful time.
You might also notice that the modern NowILayMeDownToSleep portraits are
photographed in black and white – a format that seems to abstract the content
enough so the image can be seen as more aesthetically acceptable, especially
when compared to the stark reality of the color snapshots we just saw in the
previous image.
Post Mortem Portraiture can even be
the subject of art. From The Guardian: "This somber series of portraits taken of people before and
after they had died is a challenging and poignant study. The work is by German
photographer Walter Schels and his partner Beate Lakotta, who recorded
interviews in 2003 and 2004 with the subjects in their final days, and reveals
much about dying - and living. The series is called
Life Before Death."
Other works like these amazing
portraits from
The Travelers by Elizabeth Heyert seem to celebrate life in death. These people are dressed up
in their finest for the next life.
The tradition of post mortem
portrait photography continues, but it is usually private and personal. Death
photography can be therapeutic for some, providing a way to face loss and as an
aid through one’s own grieving process, and, less so, as a family memorial. Facing
the dead in a photograph may be our last opportunity to face the universal state
of death and not be so frightened by its strangeness.
