Iceland review - 2014, Side 56

54 ICELAND REVIEW
i am
The project First and Foremost, I am… by photo-
grapher Sigríður ella Frímannsdóttir is a series of 21
portraits of people aged nine months to 60 years, all
with down syndrome. “The reason i chose 21 people
to photograph is that down syndrome, also known as
trisomy 21, is caused by the presence of all or part of
a third copy of chromosome 21,” says Sigríður ella.
“it all started when i heard a radio interview about the
difficult and ethical question we face now that we can
choose who gets to live and who will never be born.
Will we choose not to keep a fetus if it has down syn-
drome? This is a personal matter for me; my father’s
sister, Berfríður Jóhannsdóttir, was born that way.
PoRTRAIT AnD WoRDS By PÁll StEfÁnSSon