End of Life Photography
Saint Paul & the Twin Cities · Giliane E. Mansfeldt Photography
Some photographs are made in celebration. These are made in love — the particular, unhurried love that knows its time is finite and chooses to pay attention anyway.
There comes a moment when you understand that the time you have with someone is finite in a new way. A diagnosis. A shift in health. The quiet recognition that your parent is aging in ways that cannot be undone.
In that moment, most families think about many things. Photographs are rarely the first thing. But they are often, in the years that follow, the thing that matters most.
I offer end-of-life photography for families in Saint Paul and the Twin Cities who want to make images with intention — not in crisis, not at the last moment, but while there is still time to be unhurried. While the person you love is still fully themselves. While the light is still good.
What End of Life Photography Is — and Isn't
This is not about photographing death or illness. It is not about documenting decline.
It is about photographing a life, at the chapter when that life is most precious and most finite. The hands that made things. The face that has held decades of expression. The way a person sits in their own kitchen, in their own light, surrounded by the objects and the people that define who they are.
Every session is different. Some families want a quiet portrait session. Some want documentary coverage of a family gathering. Some want both. I follow your lead, work at your pace, and bring only intention and care into whatever space you invite me into.
Who This Is For
- Families with an aging parent or grandparent who want portraits made while there is still time and ease
- Families navigating a serious or terminal diagnosis who want to document this chapter with care
- Adult children who have realized there are no good photographs of a parent and want to change that
- Spouses and partners who want images made together while both people are fully present
- Families who want a legacy documentation session — a longer, more comprehensive record of a person and their life
What to Expect
Before Your Session
During Your Session
Sessions typically run 1.5 to 2.5 hours, though I am guided by the energy and pace of the day rather than the clock. If someone needs to rest, we rest. If a moment happens in a room I wasn't expecting, I follow it there.
After Your Session
Print products, albums, and archival framing are available and encouraged. These images deserve to live on walls and in hands, not only on scree
Legacy Portrait Session
A focused 90-minute session for one to three people. Ideal for a single portrait of an aging parent, a couple, or a small intimate gathering. Includes a complete curated gallery of high-resolution archival images, $200 print credit toward heirloom artwork, and digital delivery via download and archival USB with full print release.
$1, 100
Legacy Documentation Session
A comprehensive session of up to three hours, documentary in approach. Covers people, place, objects, and relationships — the hands, the home, the people, the moments between them. Includes a complete curated gallery of high-resolution archival images, $350 print credit, complimentary print consultation, and digital delivery via download and archival USB with full print release.
$1, 800
Add an heirloom album to either session — starting at $650. A fully designed, archival-quality album. The most important images from your session, sequenced and bound into something that will last generations.
A note on image delivery: You will receive a complete curated gallery — typically 40–60 images for the Legacy Portrait Session and 75–100 for the Legacy Documentation Session. Every image delivered is one worth keeping. I don’t pad galleries with duplicates or near-misses. These are the ones that matter. All images are delivered as high-resolution archival files via digital download and USB, with a full print release.
A sliding scale is available for families facing financial hardship.
Please reach out directly to discuss. Nobody should be without these photographs because of cost.
About Giliane
I am a Saint Paul photographer with over twenty-five years of experience and a background in Cultural Anthropology. I have spent my career thinking about what photographs do — not just technically, but culturally and humanly. Why we make them. What they carry. What is lost when we don’t.
I photograph newborns and families in my studio work. End of life photography is the other side of that same commitment — to witness the moments that matter most, to make images that will outlast the day they were made, to show up for the chapters of life that deserve documentation and so rarely receive it.
I approach this work with quietness, with care, and with deep respect for the people and families who invite me in. I have sat with grief and I have sat with love and I understand that in these rooms they are almost always the same thing.
The first step is a conversation. There is no obligation and no pressure. You tell me about the person you want to photograph and what you are hoping for, and we go from there.
You can reach me by email at [email protected], by phone at 651-273-0905 or by using my contact form here.
I respond to all inquiries within 24 hours.
If you’d like to understand more about how I approach this work before we talk, I’ve written about it here.