100 PHOTOGRAPHS 107
FETUS, 18 WEEKS by Lennart Nilsson
When life published Lennart Nilsson’s photo essay
“Drama of Life Before Birth” in 1965, the issue was so
popular that it sold out within days. And for good reason.
Nilsson’s images publicly revealed for the first time what
a developing fetus looks like, and in the process raised
pointed new questions about when life begins. In the ac-
companying story, life explained that all but one of the
fetuses pictured were photographed outside the womb and
had been removed—or aborted—“for a variety of medi-
cal reasons.” Nilsson had struck a deal with a hospital in
Stockholm, whose doctors called him whenever a fetus was
available to photograph. There, in a dedicated room with
lights and lenses specially designed for the project, Nilsson
arranged the fetuses so they appeared to be floating as if in
the womb.
In the years since Nilsson’s essay was published, the
images have been widely appropriated without his permis-
sion. Antiabortion activists in particular have used them to
advance their cause. (Nilsson never took a public stand on
abortion.) Still, decades after they first appeared, Nilsson’s
images endure for their unprecedentedly clear, detailed
view of human life at its earliest stages.