Post-mortem photography

[5] As photography was a new medium, it is plausible that many daguerreotype post-mortem portraits, especially those of infants and young children, were probably the only photographs ever made of the sitters[clarification needed].

[8] The later invention of the carte de visite, which allowed multiple prints to be made from a single negative, meant that copies of the image could be mailed to relatives.

[13] In the Victorian era it was common to photograph deceased young children or newborns in the arms of their mother.

There are many that believe Iceland's attitudes about post-mortem photography can be deduced from its earlier expressions in poetry of the above-average death rates.

In the early 1900s, detailed information regarding an individual's death could be commonly found in a newspaper's obituary section.

By 1960, there is almost no record of community-based professional post-mortem photography in Nordic society with some amateur photographs remaining for the purpose of the family of the deceased.

[20] How post-mortem photography began in Iceland remains uncertain, but these photographs can be traced to the late nineteenth century.

As for Iceland, the role of visual art was minimal with a select few examples dating back to medieval manuscript illustrations or memorial tablets of the 1700s.

[21] As the practice of handling and caring for the dead transferred from the responsibility of the family to that of the hospital staff, the style of photographs changed as well.

It is customary for a hospital staff member to take a photograph of a deceased child for the grieving family.

Most photographs of the deceased were taken of them up close lying down on a bed or chest and mainly consisted of children, teenagers, and some elderly persons.

This is partially due to the fact that many instances are privatized within family albums as well as the role of changes in the social and cultural attitudes surrounding death.