Myrtle's Post-mortem Photograph

In the afternoon Myrtle asked a photographer, George Wakefield to the house to take a post-mortem photograph for ten shillings and six pence of her recently deceased daughter. Gilbert, who was fascinated with photography, talked to George eagerly asking questions about his camera, partly a coping mechanism to distract himself and blank out the painful reality of his daughters death. George explained his Daguerreotype camera consisted of a light-sensitive silver-coated copper plate. It is like a mirror and the image is beamed onto the plate and then fixed with a salt solution. He explained that the Daguerreotype was invented in 1839 and it was a cheaper and quicker alternative to portrait painting. Born out of an invention, it also died out due to an invention, that of snapshot photography, which made photography available to the masses and was cheaper and easier to use. George brought with him a steel rod frame that he sometimes used to position the deceased if the family favoured a standing pose but Gilbert disliked the idea of it.

 Meanwhile, Myrtle was upstairs, doting on her daughter. She brushed her daughters hair, dressed her in her finest day clothes and chose some pearls to adorn her neck. These pearls were also seen in Myrtle’s locket and could again symbolize tears. In the photograph each person is looking in different directions. Gilbert looks directly into the camera a pose less emotional, and focused on the job in hand. Myrtle ignores the camera looking into the distance, too numb to focus on anything except treasuring the final time her family would be together and whole. Due to the slow shutter speed, the photograph is heavily posed as positions had to be held for 10 minutes. Myrtle and Gilbert appeared slightly blurred suggesting slight movement in this period when the photograph was being taken. Josephine in contrast, was entirely in focus, with perfect clarity, as because she was deceased, she had no motion. Myrtle loved this searing image of her daughter, it highlighted exactly what she wanted and she believed herself and her husband were unimportant next to her special daughter. It reflected how she saw the whole world blurred and her daughter bright and brilliant. The photograph has a shallow depth of field, with only a small amount of Josephine in focus, again denoting nothing is important except for her. Myrtle thought her daughter looked beautiful in this photograph and found the image a great comfort. The image was more accurate and perfect than Myrtles muddled and hazy old memory and she could admire her daughter whenever she wanted. Unlike many post-mortem photographs, Josephine has open eyes as if she is awake, and is relaxed in a natural pose void of stiffness. Josephine has a warm peaceful face and seems to have more life in her than her parents. It is a positive and hopeful image of death. Death was not feared by Victorians as they believed in a better after life. However to die unremembered and not mourned was feared. Myrtles face appeared numb, lifeless and haunting, in contrast to her daughter’s. Myrtle was unmistakably in mourning. Myrtle, Josephine and Gilbert all wore black creating a somber mood to the photograph.  The photograph is taken in bed, with a blanket over Josephine as if she is alive and keeping warm. Josephine is dressed in daywear to add to the sense of lifelikeness and normality of the situation. Both Myrtle and Gilbert are touching and holding their daughter. This shows a comfort, easiness and familiarity with death. It also indicates the desire to retain Josephine as a family member and to cement that forever in photograph. If Josephine was portrayed as explicitly dead, lying with closed eyes and alone, the photograph would be a reminder of mortality and of the finality of her life. Myrtle had seen post-mortem photographs in friends of the families houses featuring the coffin and didn’t like them. Although life is extinguished it is portrayed as continuing. Her mother and father will keep her alive, through memory and memorabilia. In the background, a covered piece of furniture can be seen. It is an ambiguous object and it is more ghostly than Josephine. It slightly echoes the shape of a cross and could symbolize religion. In the background it encompasses all of the family, denoting how religion will keep their family together. Another interpretation could be that it is a coffin. Covered in a sheet it masks the reality of death just as the post-mortem photograph does. In the Victorian era, people could not travel long distances quickly to attend funerals so Josephine’s post-mortem photograph allowed her relatives to see her before her burial. Today post-mortem photography has stopped. Living in an age where death was focused on and highly visible Myrtle found post-mortem photography beautiful and comforting. However in the present day it is widely seen as sensationalistic and vulgar as there is a social discomfort. It is not a necessity anymore as transport is extremely quick so relatives can attend a funeral and see the deceased. Wilson notes that “contemporary culture has taken flight from the very idea of death”. This could be as less people are religious and therefore do not believe in a better afterlife, so faced with annihilation and no comfort people blank it out. In Victorian times dying would occur in the home and mourning attire worn in public so highly visible, people would be used to it. However today David Wendell Moller notes that “dying is banished from public visibility as it is isolated within the professional, technical confines of the hospital”.