Natalie Lennard

Power Pilgrimage - Birth Scene from the Farm and Ina May Gaskin (Red+Orange)

2020

In 1971, three hundred hippies set off from California in a convoy of 90 trucks and schoolbuses to find a new life. The pregnant women amongst them, out a desire to treat birth as a normal part of proceedings, passed around birth manuals and learnt to deliver each others' babies on the road. It was the memory of the very first woman, calmly and tenderly birthing in the arms of her husband in the back of a bus on a pitstop, that was to change the lives of two watching women...

In 1971, three hundred hippies set off from California in a convoy of 90 trucks and schoolbuses to find a new life. The pregnant women amongst them, out a desire to treat birth as a normal part of proceedings, passed around birth manuals and learnt to deliver each others' babies on the road. It was the memory of the very first woman, calmly and tenderly birthing in the arms of her husband in the back of a bus on a pitstop, that was to change the lives of two watching women...

"Aquadural" is part of international artist Natalie Lennard's series Birth Undisturbed. - See our storefront at Gallery 1202 for the other works in this series “The baby doesn’t co...

Every image in Birth Undisturbed is available to purchase as a limited edition, numbered photographic artwork. Available in 13x19, 35x47, 47x62, 59x75 as well. Inquire for more pricing and follow our storefront at Gallery 1202 for more work by Lennard. "The Whitechapel Woman" is part of international artist, Natalie Lennard's series Birth Undisturbed. “For the first time... I had been refused when offering chloroform... later I asked her why... shyly she turned from thw window that burst the first light of dawn and said: ‘It didn’t hurt. It wasn’t meant to, was it, doctor?’" A chance phrase by a woman in a hovel in Whitechapel in 1911, that childbirth wasn’t meant to be painful, led the young Dr Grantly Dick-Read to explore that in the absence of fear, the body's natural endorphins can replace the stress hormones that cause pain in childbirth. He went on to write the most influential book on childbirth of the last century, 'Childbirth Without Fear' in 1942, with the passage describing the encounter becoming famously enshrined in birth philosophy. “The window was broken, rain pouring in, the bed had no proper covering… the room was lit by one candle stuck in the top of a beer bottle on the mantelshelf, my patient covered in sacks… a neighbour had brought in a jug of water and a basin”. Dick-Read’s cinematic account for the first time is here visualised, re-enacted at Dennis Severs’ House, a ‘living museum’ of Victorian London. With inspiration from the composition of painting ‘The Doctor’ (1890) by Sir Luke Fildes...

"Salle Sauvage" is part of international artist, Natalie Lennard's series Birth Undisturbed. “The bearing of children ought to become as free from danger and long debility to civilised woman as it is to the savage.”— Thomas Huxley ‘Salle Sauvage’ translates to ‘primitive room’, a term coined by renowned obstretician Michel Odent in reference to his hospital in Pithiviers, France, with rooms designed to accommodate the primal instincts of labouring women. Here, a glass Cube set within the urban landscape of London becomes a metaphor for Odent’s primitive room and a woman’s connection with nature through homebirth. It is as though the walls of a living room have become transparent admitting our spectatorship into the private space of a birthing woman, perhaps for our enlightenment as well as vicariousness. “Buscar la forma” say the women of the Yucatan in Mexico, meaning to find your style, in contrast to the Western medical model...

"Ejection Reflex" is part of international artist, Natalie Lennard's series Birth Undisturbed. “Attending births is like growing roses. You have to marvel at the ones that just ope...

Wand • 1985 • Edition of 18 prints in 3 different sizes. All prints are numbered and signed. Printed on Hahnemühle Archival Paper. Three different sizes are available, the series is ...

An underwater nude photograph of a beautiful young woman diving in a red pool. Ripples and sunbeams are painting mysterious pattern on her perfect breasts. Original gallery quality...

Wand • 1985 • Edition of 18 prints in 3 different sizes. All prints are numbered and signed. Printed on Hahnemühle Archival Paper. Three different sizes are available, the series is ...

Wand • 1985 • Edition of 18 prints in 3 different sizes. All prints are numbered and signed. Printed on Hahnemühle Archival Paper. Three different sizes are available, the series is ...

Icarus #1 (Contemporary Nude in Sky Photograph Based of Traditional Greek Myth) 18 x 30 inches unframed archival digital print Inspired by the story of Ica...

Underwater photograph of a young naked woman diving in a pool. Her face is covered with red scarf. Her beautiful naked body and the red scarf look fresh and vibrant on black backgro...