Foetus 18 Weeks: the greatest photograph of the 20th century?
胎兒 18 周：20 世紀最偉大的照片？

In April 1965, Life magazine put a photograph called Foetus 18 Weeks on its cover and caused a sensation. The issue was a spectacular success, the fastest-selling copy in Life’s entire history. In full colour and crystal clear detail, the picture showed a foetus in its amniotic sac, with its umbilical cord winding off to the placenta. The unborn child, floating in a seemingly cosmic backdrop, appears vulnerable yet serene. Its eyes are closed and its tiny, perfectly formed fists are clutched to its chest.
1965 年 4 月，《生活》雜誌將一張名為《胎兒 18 周》的照片放在封面上，引起了轟動。這期雜誌大獲成功，成為《Life》雜誌有史以來銷售最快的一期。照片以全彩和水晶般清晰的細節展示了羊膜囊中的胎兒，臍帶一直繞到胎盤。未出生的嬰兒漂浮在看似宇宙的背景中，顯得脆弱而寧靜。他閉著眼睛，小小的、完美的拳頭緊握在胸前。

Capturing that most universal of subjects, our own creation, Foetus 18 Weeks was one of the 20th century’s great photographs, as emotive as it was technically impressive, even by today’s standards. And its impact was enormous, growing into something its creator struggled to control, as the image was hijacked by the fledgling anti-abortion movement.
Fetetus 18 Weeks 是 20 世紀最偉大的照片之一，它捕捉了最普遍的主題 - 我們自己的創造。它的影響力是巨大的，隨著這張照片被新興的反墮胎運動搶佔，它的創造者也在努力控制它的發展。

Foetus 18 Weeks was taken by Lennart Nilsson, part of an astonishing series of prenatal pictures by this visionary Swedish photojournalist. His groundbreaking pictures have now reached a whole new generation, having just been shown at the Paris Photo art fair, the first time they have ever been exhibited outside Sweden. There is talk of a further appearance in Vienna.
Foetus 18 Weeks 由 Lennart Nilsson 拍攝，是這位富有遠見的瑞典攝影記者驚人的產前照片系列之一。他的開創性照片現在已經傳達給了全新一代的人，剛剛在巴黎攝影藝術博覽會上展出，這是這些照片第一次在瑞典以外的地方展出。有消息說他的作品還會在維也納展出。

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Nilsson told the editors of Life his plans to capture the beginnings of human existence while visiting New York in 1954. “It was impossible for us not to express a degree of scepticism about his chances of success,” one later recalled, “but this was lost on Nilsson.” A decade later, he returned with the first photographs, shot in both colour and black and white – an unprecedented feat that fused photography and biological study. They were published in Life as an iconic photo essay, entitled Drama of Life Before Birth.
1954 年，Nilsson 在訪問紐約時，告訴《Life》的編輯們他計畫拍攝人類存在的開始。「我們不可能不對他的成功機會表示一定程度的懷疑，」一位編輯後來回憶道，"但 Nilsson 卻沒有注意到這一點。十年之後，他帶著第一批彩色和黑白照片回來，這是前所未有的壯舉，他將攝影和生物研究融為一體。這些照片被刊登在《生命》雜誌上，成為一篇標誌性的攝影隨筆，標題為《出生前的生命劇場》（Drama of Life Before Birth）。

Ultrasound technology was first introduced for clinical purposes in Glasgow in 1956. But charting an unborn child’s development through such images was not common in hospitals until the 1970s, and even today the quality is poor. So instead, Nilsson enlisted the help of two endoscope experts, the German company Karl Storz, and the Swedish Jungners Optiska, who created optical tubes with macro lenses and wide-angled optics that could be inserted into a woman’s body.
超音波技術於 1956 年首次在格拉斯哥引入臨床用途。但直到 20 世紀 70 年代，透過這種影像來繪製未出生嬰兒的發育圖表在醫院中還不常見，即使在今天，品質也很差。因此，Nilsson 尋求了德國 Karl Storz 公司和瑞典 JungnersOptiska 公司這兩位內視鏡專家的協助，製造出具有微距鏡頭和廣角光學的光管，可以插入女性體內。

Nilsson was only able to photograph one living foetus, though, using an endoscopic camera that travelled into a womb. This picture was included in Life and is distinct from the others – being taken inside the uterus means it can’t capture the foetus in its entirety. All the other images were either miscarried or terminated pregnancies.
不過，Nilsson 只拍到一個活生生的胎兒，使用的是進入子宮的內視鏡攝影機。這張照片被收錄在《Life》雜誌中，與其他照片截然不同 - 在子宮內拍攝意味著它無法捕捉到胎兒的全貌。其他所有的照片都是流產或中止妊娠的照片。

The photographer worked closely with Professor Axel Ingelman-Sundberg, then head of the women’s clinic at the Sabbatsberg hospital in Stockholm, taking hundreds of shots with his Hasselblad camera from 1958 to 1965. Whenever the hospital had access to a foetus (or embryo) Nilsson could photograph, they would call him immediately – it was essential to photograph them within a few hours.
這位攝影師與斯德哥爾摩 Sabbatsberg 醫院當時的婦女診所所長 Axel Ingelman-Sundberg 教授密切合作，從 1958 年到 1965 年用他的 Hasselblad 相機拍攝了數百張照片。每當醫院找到 Nilsson 可以拍攝的胎兒 (或胚胎)，他們都會立即打電話給他，因為必須在幾小時內拍攝完成。

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Nilsson had set up a studio at the hospital where his subjects would be placed in an aquarium-like environment, which is why they appear to float in space. Together, his shots create a spellbinding timeline, from an egg fertilised with sperm to foetuses at various stages up to six months.
Nilsson 在醫院設置了一個攝影棚，將拍攝對象放置在類似水族箱的環境中，因此他們看起來像是漂浮在太空中。從精子受精的卵子到六個月大的胎兒，他的鏡頭創造出令人著迷的時間軸。

Nilsson also published the pictures in A Child Is Born, intended as a guide for mothers to be. It is one of the top-selling illustrated books of all time, having been translated into 20 languages. His interest in looking inside bodies to understand the unseen would continue after his foetus series: Nilsson is credited with taking the first photographs of the SARS and HIV viruses. After the rise of television, he turned to moving pictures, making such documentaries as the 1982 Emmy-award winning film The Saga of Life.
Nilsson 也在《A Child Is Born》一書中出版了這些圖片，作為準母親的指南。這本書是史上最暢銷的插圖書之一，已被翻譯成 20 種語言。在他的胎兒系列之後，他對於觀察人體內部以了解不為人知的事物的興趣將持續下去：Nilsson 被認為拍攝了第一張 SARS 和 HIV 病毒的照片。在電視興起之後，他轉而拍攝電影，製作了 1982 年艾美獎得主《生命的傳奇》等紀錄片。

Following the huge success of both the Life cover and A Child is Born, Nilsson became world famous. Anne Fjellström, his stepdaughter, worked as an assistant on a 1990 edition of A Child is Born and became enthralled by his work. “I’ve spent the last 20 years trying to understand it,” says Fjellström, who is now in charge of his estate.
隨著 Life 封面和 A Child is Born 的大獲成功，Nilsson 聲名大噪。他的繼女 Anne Fjellström 曾在 1990 年版的《A Child is Born》中擔任助理，並被他的作品深深吸引。"Fjellström 說：「在過去的 20 年裡，我一直試圖了解他的作品。

As the women’s liberation movement grew, and debate over reproductive rights raged, Nilsson’s pictures became intensely politicised, especially in the US in the 1970s. But Nilsson was working in Sweden and wasn’t aware of the strong reactions his images were causing abroad. It was only on a trip to London in the 1980s, when Nilsson saw his plagiarised pictures printed on posters at an anti-abortion protest, that he became aware of how they were being used. He was, Fjellström recalls, deeply shocked.
隨著婦女解放運動的發展，以及有關生育權的爭論，Nilsson 的照片變得非常政治化，尤其是在 1970 年代的美國。但當時 Nilsson 在瑞典工作，並未意識到他的照片在國外引起的強烈反應。直到 1980 年代一次倫敦之旅，Nilsson 在反墮胎抗議活動的海報上看到他剽竊的照片，他才意識到這些照片是如何被使用的。Fjellström 回憶說，他當時非常震驚。

After seeing this, Nilsson refused to allow the photographs to be published again. “Lennart wasn’t a political person,” says Fjellström, though this hasn’t stopped the images being appropriated by anti-abortion campaigners, most recently in Ireland and the US, and the requests keep coming. “I get emails every week,” she says. “But we remain neutral. The material was not made for that purpose and that must be respected.”
Nilsson 看到後，拒絕再出版這些照片。Fjellström 說：「Lennart 並不是一個政治人物，」儘管這並沒有阻止這些照片被反墮胎運動人士使用，最近的一次是在愛爾蘭和美國。"她說：「我每週都會收到電子郵件。"但我們保持中立。這些素材不是為了這個目的而製作的，這一點必須受到尊重。

However, Nilsson returned to the images shortly before his death in 2017, at the age of 94. He arranged them into a definitive black and white series, so that museums and public collections might be able to access and display them after his death. They were intended to be his legacy. The selection for Paris Photo, which gave the shots an international stage, was put together by Fjellström and Jan Stene, director of Stene Projects, a gallery in Stockholm.
然而，Nilsson 在 2017 年逝世前不久，即 94 歲高齡時，重新回到這些影像中。他將這些圖片編排成一個完整的黑白系列，以便博物館和公共收藏機構能夠在他去世後獲取和展示這些圖片。這些作品是他的遺產。Fjellström和斯德哥爾摩一家畫廊Stene Projects的總監Jan Stene共同為《巴黎攝影》挑選了這些作品，為它們提供了一個國際舞台。

The images caused a stir in Paris and it’s easy to see why: their quiet beauty has a powerful emotional pull. “Nilsson,” says Stene, “wanted to make the invisible visible – and show us the astonishing journey we all make, one that unites all humans. He wanted to give us an opportunity to look inside ourselves, to discover pictures that define us as humankind.”
這些圖片在巴黎引起轟動，原因不難理解：它們的寧靜之美具有強大的情感吸引力。"Stene 說：「Nilsson 想要讓無形的事物變得可見，並讓我們看到我們所有人所走過的驚人旅程，一個將人類連結在一起的旅程。他想給我們一個機會去看我們自己的內心，去發現那些定義我們人類的圖片。

Nilsson, says Fjellström, was “a very private person” who usually worked alone. How capturing these images might have affected him psychologically remains unclear. “I think he understood that the issue was complicated,” she says. “But like most journalists, he was focused on what he wanted. I know he was amazed by what he saw and wanted to reveal how amazing our common journey is.”
Fjellström 表示，Nilsson 是個 「非常隱私的人」，通常獨自工作。目前還不清楚拍攝這些影像對他的心理有什麼影響。"她說：「我認為他明白這個問題很複雜。"但和大多數記者一樣，他專注於自己想要的東西。我知道他對自己所看到的感到驚訝，並想要揭示我們共同的旅程是多麼的奇妙。

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Stene accepts that the images have divided opinion over the polemical question of when life begins, but says: “Everyone interprets images differently, depending on their social, cultural and religious background. In the digital era, I believe it is more important than ever to go back and take a look inside ourselves. What better way of doing that than with these photos?”
Stene 承認這些圖片在生命何時開始的爭論性問題上造成意見分歧，但他說：「每個人對圖片的詮釋都不同，這取決於他們的社會、文化和宗教背景。在數位時代，我相信回頭看看自己的內心比以往更重要。還有比這些照片更好的方式嗎？

Last year, Stene points out, the first ever photograph of a black hole was published. “For me,” he says, “looking at that picture and looking at one of the foetus photos are the same thing. After all, what do we really know about the origin of mankind and the universe?”
Stene 指出，去年發表了史上第一張黑洞照片。「對我來說，」他說，"看那張照片和看其中一張胎兒照片是一回事。畢竟，我們對於人類和宇宙的起源到底知道多少呢？"