Pregnant Pose - Haaretz

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Wed., November 28, 2007 Kislev 18, 5768

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		Yael Herman-Orlev and her partner photographed by Israel Baron.

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Pregnant Pose

By Limor Gal

"After all this glamour, it's a little weird for me just to be wearing an ordinary shirt and pants," says Lilach Alon. She had just finished a three-hour photo shoot in which she changed skirts and hats and jewelry as if she were Gisele Bundchen on a busy day, covering her chest with a succession of glittery scarves as her hands caressed her round belly.

Alon, 26, works for a high-tech company and is in her 32nd week of pregnancy. She didn't feel physically well during most of that time and stubbornly avoided the camera at home. But then it hit her that she didn't have any photographs of herself with her pregnant belly, which before long would be replaced by a demanding infant.

"On a pregnancy forum on the Internet I read about studio pregnancy photographs, and I decided that if I was going to do it, then let's do it right," she says, recounting her decision to have a portfolio made.

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During the photo shoot, which took place on a Friday afternoon about a month ago, in the Ramat Gan apartment of photographer Keren Lagziel, the model bravely bore her weight in a range of poses, according to the photographer's instructions. "I already know where the subject should place her hand and at what angle she should hold her head so no double chins or rolls of flab will appear in the pictures," explains Lagziel, pointing out that what's good for Israeli supermodel Bar Rafaeli's waist is good for her clients, too: "In any case, after the shoot you can work on the picture on the computer and improve the result."

Toward the end of the shoot, and after several breaks in which the diet cola of the modeling world was replaced by juice and cookies, Lilach's husband, Roni, 31, a salesman in the same company where Lilach works, joins the set. He takes off his shirt and he and Lilach are photographed in different poses - Roni kissing her belly, Roni kneeling and serenading her on the guitar, Roni with his arms around his wife, his hands concealing her breasts.

For Lilach and Roni, this is their first-ever experience with modeling. At their wedding, about a year ago, they hired a photographer who agreed not to pose them at all and only to take candid shots throughout the wedding. But the pregnancy brought them to a professional photography studio, and dozens more couples are doing the same each month.

The fashion of pregnancy photographs developed in Israel over the past decade and has gained momentum in the last three years. "When I first started out, when I told people that I do pregnancy photos, they looked at me quizzically," says Nitzan Hermoni, who began photographing pregnant women in 1997. Today, when a woman goes on one of the Internet pregnancy forums and asks for a recommendation for a pregnancy photographer, the other women on the forum know exactly what she's talking about, as though such photos were another routine procedure, like an amnio or ultrasound.

The cost of the photographs ranges from NIS 600 to NIS 1,000, in return for which the couple generally receives a CD with all the photos that were taken, and a nicely designed album composed of the best shots. As in the wedding photography industry, here, too, the photographers sometimes add creative touches, such as lines of text or poems, or copies of the ultrasound images.

An aesthetic record

Overseas, the trend began shortly after Demi Moore was photographed pregnant and nude for a 1991 Vanity Fair cover. Other pregnant stars followed in her footsteps, and then the trend caught on among other women, too.

"In the past two years, albums of this kind have become very popular in New York," says Sara Filer, who teaches photography at Hadassah College. "In a quick survey I did, I found that up until the 1960s, it wasn't common for pregnant women to be photographed at all, even at home, and if they were, then they preferred to hide the pregnancy or stand behind someone. In the 1970s, pregnant women started showing up in photo albums, but fully dressed. In the 1980s, the shirt was pulled up, and in the 1990s you see the chest, too, but only in a private album and not in something that strangers might look at.

"Nowadays, not only do women want to have a photographic record of the pregnancy, they want to do it in an aesthetic way. In Israel, the roots of pregnancy photography may lie in the Israel Photography Annual, which was edited by Peter Merom in the 1960s. But there, the naked belly had a formalistic, almost abstract, meaning, and it appeared as a subject in itself, a strip of light, a belly close-up. On rare occasions, faces appeared, too, in shadow or fragmented, because there was no interest in the person or in the pregnancy experience, which is what's at the center today. Besides that, the contemporary desire for artistic photography is part of a broad trend that also exists in wedding photography. It's a production that goes beyond the desire to record to the desire to be artistic."

Perhaps it is the desire to be artistic that encourages the subjects to strike somewhat erotic poses. In some of the photos the woman is nude and covering her breasts with her hands. In others, her partner is obscuring her chest, or else a scarf has been carefully placed there.

"I think that in the past, couples also used to have their pictures taken in revealing poses, but not necessarily during pregnancy," says Filer. "The difference is that in the past they would do it in secret, and then hide the pictures. Today it's done with a professional photographer and then the pictures are put in an album for guests to look at, too."

And not just in an album, but also on the walls of the house, in an enlarged photograph printed on canvas. Eyal and Inbar Shlafruk from Nordiya, whose son Omri was born a few weeks ago, have already hung up some of the photo enlargements. In the living room is a picture, measuring one meter and 20 centimeters by one meter and 20 centimeters, of Inbar, and in the bedroom is an intimate picture of the two of them (one meter by one meter).

Inbar, 26, who recently completed her studies in criminology, says: "On a decorating program I was watching, I saw a pregnancy photograph hanging in the woman's living room and I really liked it." Eyal, 36, who works in the stock market, readily consented to the idea. "We were partners throughout the whole pregnancy," he says, "and I immediately knew that I'd be a partner in the photographs, too. For most of the process, I sat in a coffee shop, so as not to get in the way. When it was my turn, I came in, took off my shirt and had my picture taken. Most of the people who've come here had never seen photographs like this before and they were definitely enthusiastic about them. The picture in the living room has a presence that fills the house with warmth and something real and natural. My mother said it was fantastic. My father agreed that it was stunning, but said he would have preferred to see a landscape picture in the living room."

The father's reaction is not surprising. Not that long ago, women tried to hide their "condition" under roomy blouses. Only in recent years has a real pride in the pregnant belly developed, a pride expressed by the wearing of tight clothing and midriff tops. Some women even choose to have a plaster mold made of their pregnant belly and later turn it into a sculpture or a lamp.

Last year, on the "Mommy" portal, there was a "Beautiful Belly Contest." The competition has been held three times (the fourth is just getting underway), and each time about a thousand women submitted photographs.

The walls of Hermoni's studio are covered with such photos - black and white shots of pregnant women alone, with a boy or girl, in a variety of outfits and scarves. Some of the pictures feature the couple together, but most are solo shots of the pregnant woman (and her belly).

"Usually, the women come with their partner," says Hermoni, "but some women have posed with their mother, or sister, and a few even posed with their dog. Sometimes the photo session is a gift from the woman's best friend. Often, the women will come back after the birth to be photographed with the baby. It's becoming common again to have family photos done in a studio, the way it once was. At first the only women who came were those who were more open and daring. Now women of all kinds come, from all over the country, with money and without money."

Pregnancy adds beauty

Most of the women who decide on such a photo session say they want a souvenir from their pregnancy. But Maya Aharoni, who photographs pregnant women in the studio and outdoors in Sde Warburg, thinks that sometimes it's just an excuse to model for the camera. "A lot of little girls say they want to become models or actresses, but only a few actually do. Pregnancy gives legitimacy to realizing that dream."

In general, the husband is the passive participant in the process. "Most of the husbands aren't interested in being photographed at first, but in the end they go along with it. The process embarrasses them and they need time to get used to the idea," says Israel Baron, a pregnancy photographer from Tel Aviv, whose exhibit, "Beri'ah" ("Creation") was recently displayed at Dizengoff Center. Nitzan Hermoni says that sometimes a photograph like that of Anthony Parker, the former Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball star who was photographed with his wife and whose picture hangs in her studio, convinces the men to pose for the photographs, too.

Women are much more ready to dive in. "At no other time in my life would I have ever done a portfolio," says Yael Herman-Orlev, a pharmacist and shiatsu therapist. "I was walking down the street full of pride over what was growing inside me. I felt a marvelous and total perfection. For the first time, I felt content with my body. I was always looking in stores for tight clothes, because it felt so good to look in the mirror and see my belly." Herman-Orlev, 33, was photographed by Israel Baron for his photo exhibition when she was in the 38th week of her pregnancy.

Lilach Alon also says that pregnancy made it easier to stand in the spotlight. "When you're pregnant, you feel this acceptance of your body, something very feminine and flowing. Before the pregnancy, I always felt that I was too flabby here and too flabby there, but when you're pregnant that's all gone. I think that's the reason it was easy for me to do this. The inhibitions disappeared."

Shirli Natan-Yulazri, 32, from Netanya, was photographed a year ago, when she was pregnant with twins, so she could submit her picture to the Beautiful Belly Contest. Still, she describes herself as shy. Natan-Yulazri, a doctoral student in Bible studies at Tel Aviv University, says that the pregnancy made her shed her defenses. Maybe "shed" is putting it too mildly: She didn't hesitate to send SMS messages to over 200 of her fellow students, asking for their support in the contest. "I felt very beautiful. I felt terrific. Despite the difficulties and the swollen ankles, I was caressing my belly and smiling the whole time."

Not all pregnant women see what's so great about a big belly, nausea, stretch marks and all the other side effects of the process of bearing a child. But to pregnancy photographers, nothing is more exquisite. "Pregnancy is added beauty," says Nitzan Hermoni. "It makes every woman more beautiful."

"This tenderness is something magical, divine, perfect," says Tali Raviv of the Pe'imot Studio in Ra'anana, though she also has a less lyrical explanation: "There are women who in their everyday lives don't feel comfortable with themselves, overweight women for instance, who I'm certain wouldn't feel comfortable posing for me in their normal, non-pregnant state. But pregnancy recharges their femininity and their connection to themselves and it's something that's really beautiful to see."

Dr. Hila Ha'elyon of Tel Aviv University's Gender Studies Program has another explanation for the popularity of pregnancy photos. "A pregnant woman is subject to a number of forces that give her a feeling of loss of control," she says. "The first factor is the biological condition: Within her body a life is developing over which she has no control, and the boundaries of her body are changing. The feminist philosopher Julia Kristeva refers to this reality as 'It happens but I'm not there.'

"The second factor has to do with the fact that in our day and age, all the advanced technology practically confers upon the fetus the status of a citizen. The doctors talk about him, examine him and are concerned for his welfare, and the woman is left out. And in the end, as researchers Sandra Mateus and Laura Wechsler argue, the pregnant female body is a silenced body that belongs to the realm of the bedroom or the therapeutic sphere or to private girl-talk. The choice to be photographed attests to a kind of feminine power, because the photograph brings the subject out of the private realm and into the public realm. Through such photography women can create a new language that makes their voices heard. These photographs are often their way of expressing a desire to be sensual and sexual at the same time that they are mothers-to-be."

Sociologist Diana Luzzatto of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College also sees strength and feminism in this act of documentation, but the opposite as well: "On the one hand, it's possible to see the fashion for pregnancy photos as an ex pression of a new and interesting feminism in which the woman is the master of her body and is proud to show it off. Pregnancy also gives the woman a certain sense of strength: I'll do what I want, because I have this thing that is most precious to the family, to the country, to the world - the baby.

"On the other hand, one could also see this as a sly way of shifting the definition that says a woman's worth comes down to her ability to give birth: When a woman is pregnant her body is no longer just hers alone. She alone is not the real subject of the photograph; she and the pregnancy are the subject. It's a little similar to what goes on with breast-feeding. Women who at other times in their lives would be completely nonplussed if another woman showed so much as half a nipple in public, as mothers, they will pull out a breast and nurse in public places. These two things are related to the mythology of pregnancy and birth as a marvelous, natural and magical experience. And to be honest, pregnancy is the heyday of the Israeli woman, because afterward she'll have to deal once again with problems like a career and women's status."W

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1.	incorrect picture caption	08:44	\|	matt	26/11/06

2.	just	14:00	\|	dierre	26/11/06

3.	V. Nice	15:14	\|	N/A	26/11/06

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5.	CHILD LABOR	23:02	\|	FFF	28/11/07

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