Rachel Berkowitz

Self-Portrait in Isolation No. 8- Nightmare Series of Nude Portraits (1/5)

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...

"Royal Blood" is part of international artist, Natalie Lennard's series Birth Undisturbed. "When the Queen’s parents suggested she move to a quieter room away from the crowds of well-wishers heard from the front of the Palace, she refused, insisting 'I want my baby to be born in my own room, amongst the things I know.'" Prince Edward was born 10 March 1964 in the Belgian Suite at Buckingham Palace, attended by midwife Helen Rowe and ob-gyn John Harold Peel. The last of Queen Elizabeth II’s children, it was the first to be active and conscious, at a time when “twilight sleep” - knocking out the mother and delivering via forceps - was beginning to phase out. All the Queen’s children were Royal homebirths. Her first birth in 1948 had already marked the end of centuries’ long tradition of Royal observation. Historically, at a birth of any potential heir to the throne, the room would be crowded with ladies-in-waiting, midwives, servants and doctors, near crushing Marie Antoinette to death in 1778. With the birth of her fourth and final child, the Queen was said to lay down the terms for how she wanted to deliver, breaking yet another tradition by having her husband present. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, had always been a nervous expectant father and historically had chosen to spend the Queen’s labours swimming and playing squash. This time he stayed at her bedside holding her hand, the first male Royal partner to be present in the room in years. In our modern form of collective mass-observation, the whole world watched...

Heun Kim Jung is a London-based photographer, originally born in Seoul, Korea. Jung's work primarily deals with narratives of women outside of the typical domestic role, and her goa...

Homage a René Gruau I • Paris, 2011 • Edition of 18 prints in 3 sizes. All prints are numbered and signed. Printed on Hahnemühle Archival Paper. Three different sizes are available, ...

Hommage a René Gruau II • Paris, 2011 • Edition of 18 prints in 3 sizes. All prints are numbered and signed. Printed on Hahnemühle Archival Paper. Three different sizes are available...

Hommage a René Gruau III • Paris, 2011 • Edition of 18 prints in 3 sizes. All prints are numbered and signed. Printed on Hahnemühle Archival Paper. Three different sizes are availabl...

Listing includes free shipping in the US and a 14-day return policy. All prints are made to order and will arrive in mint condition directly from Christopher Anderson...