As I was reading I saw some photos and a concept that intrigued me by Rineke Dijkstra, a Dutch photographer. She did a series of photos in 1994 over a period of 4 months. The photos in this book are of 3 nude mothers, just after giving birth to their babies. There is one lady who is photographed with her newborn just one hour after giving birth. Another mother she shot one day after she had her baby. The third woman she photographed after one week of her child's birth. It is one thing you do not think about after the fact of the woman having her child. Dijkstra focuses on the impact of pregnancy and labour on the women. It is something you would not naturally think to do after a woman has her baby. Normally you would photograph her at the hospital holding her baby, all smiling and cute. The typical newborn and mother photos. But these, are taken of the women just standing against a plain white wall in the nude, holding their newborn babies. It is a different take on childbirth and I think it is a very interesting and intriguing idea.
Cotton states in this paragraph that "These photographs visualize the profound shift in the women's changing relationships to their bodies and the instinctive protection they demonstrate towards their newborn babies, something we might never have observed without such a systematic and detached photographic style."
I think that is very true. She photographs these women as no one would think to do. It is an interesting idea and a good way to see the effects of pregnancy on the woman's body and to see even their facial and bodily expressions at different time periods after childbirth.
If you want to see the photos i'll post a link down here.
http://images.artnet.com/WebServices/picture.aspx?date=20011115&catalog=14842&gallery=110889&lot=00315&filetype=2
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