What does a baby look like when emerging from its mother’s womb? This is the question Christian Berthelot wished to answer through a series of photos of infants taken during cesarean sections. And the result is overwhelming. The CESAR project “was born out of a reality: the birth of my first child! It took place in a hurry and the surgery that took place had to save him, and his mother. When I first saw him he was bloodied, covered in that whitish substance called vernix, just as it is, he was like a warrior who has just won his first battle, like an angel out of darkness. What a joy to hear him scream, ”explains the artist. A week after the birth of his son, he met Dr Jean-François Morienval, obstetrician, at the clinic. “He loved photography, he knew I was a photographer and he wanted to discuss it.” From there is born a beautiful collaboration. “About six months later, he asked me if I would agree to take photographs of his job as a midwife in the operating theater, if I would agree to take caesarean section photographs… I immediately said yes. But we still had to wait six months before taking the first photographs ”. A period during which the photographer prepared his visit to the medical team. He also received training in an operating environment and psychological preparation …
Until the day the doctor called her for a cesarean. “I felt like I found myself a year ago. I thought about the birth of my son. The whole team was there and attentive. Christian did not crack. On the contrary, he took his device to do “his job”.
Since then he has photographed more than 40 children. “My perspective on birth has changed. I discovered the dangers of being born. It is for this reason that I decided to show the beginnings of a new human being during the first seconds of his life. Between the time the child is torn from its mother’s womb and the time it leaves for first aid, no more than a minute passes. In this space of time everything is possible! It is a unique, decisive and magical moment! For me this moment is manifested by this second, this hundredth of a photographic second, in which the child, a primitive Human Being, not yet a “baby”, expresses himself for the first time. If some seem appeased, others scream and gesture, others do not yet seem to belong to the world of the living. But what is certain is that they have all reached the end of this first stage ”. And despite the blood and the dark side, it’s beautiful to see.
Find the photos of Christian Bertholot during the exhibition “Circulations”, Festival of young European photography, from January 24 to March 8, 2015.
Elodie-Elsy Moreau