Christian Berthelot photographed babies born by C-section in their first 20 seconds of life:
Berthelot said witnessing so many births has changed his perspective about the process and has decided to focus solely on the first few moments of life, though he knows viewers may find the images a bit raw and tough to look at.
“I know there are people who react very badly, who find it disgusting, they tell me that I do not have the right to show the children in the bloodstream,” he said.” Some even told me that it is not real, it is not true. This is absurd. Children are not born in cabbages or roses. And there are those who are fascinated, I give them the opportunity to observe in detail the violence of birth, but there are also people like my wife, who encouraged me to do this work, because caesarean is beautiful birth.”
“What continues to amaze me is that it never stops. With each passing moment, a child is born, from all over the world, all the time, births never stop.”
See more images from the series here. The project will be shown in Paris, France during the Festival Circulation(s) Exhibition from January 24 to March 8, 2015.
The Dish 