WITH CHILD
Howard Schatz
With a Foreword by Vicki Goldberg

In WITH CHILD, award winning photographer and author of seventeen earlier books, Howard Schatz turns his lens in his utterly distinctive way to one of the most basic events of our universe: childbirth. Photographing mothers “with child” before and after the birth, this noted artist brings a new sensibility to a topic that has been discussed, catalogued, and recorded before—but with his unique vision and brilliant analytical tools, explores the subject as it has never before been explored.

Not just a tour de force showing mothers before giving birth, or mothers before birth and later, with their newborn infants, Schatz turns his genius in imagery to asking questions through his photography. With this presentation of 150 original photographs, he leads the reader to many new birth experiences, merely by focusing his camera in ways that no one would have before considered. This book is as much sculpture as photographic image…he demands that the viewer think about the process of the mother while her baby is gestating; and relate the birth of the baby to the mother after it is born. Few photographers have the luxury of devoting this much attention and time to spanning a long-term process such as pregnancy and childbirth. Here, Schatz shows us the continuum in varied and minute detail, so whether we are art lover, photography aficionado, or parent—actual or considering—this is a book that will open eyes.

With an essay by Vicki Goldberg, herself an award winning photographer, essayist, and published author on photography subjects, this book cannot be ignored as it provides the most enlightened treatment of the subject to date. As gift for a parent-to-be, current parent, or even one’s self, this is a book that changes the landscape of how we all view and will experience the gorgeous event of the birth process.

Howard Schatz is a master of the human form. WITH Child is his eighteenth book, the result of almost twenty years of photographing the stunning landscape of a woman’s body in the last two weeks of pregnancy. During the course of those twenty years, his intense focus on the study of structure, contour and physique has also resulted in four remarkable monographs illustrating the body’s power, rhythm, motion, beauty and shape: Athlete, Passion & Line, Nude Body Nude, and Body Knots. Schatz is also known internationally for his unique imagery of dancers underwater. H2O, Schatz’s seventeenth book of photographs, was the third in his series of explorations of imagery made on, over and underwater. This monograph, along with Water Dance and Pool Light, showcases Schatz’s breathtaking underwater photography and his visionary celebration of movement and form.