19 Groundbreaking Images By This Photographer Offering A Glimpse Into The Miracle Of Birth

Bored Panda reached out to Anne Fjellström, Nilsson’s stepdaughter, who now curates the Instagram account dedicated to preserving the photographer’s legacy. Firstly, we found out more about the inspiration to curate the social media profile: “We have had the account since 2016. Lennart Nilsson passed away in January 2017. We tried to use Facebook in the beginning but found it much easier to communicate using Instagram. It was a complement to our website with the aim of spreading Lennart Nilsson's life's work and maintaining interest in his photographic works. We want his images and films to act as a source of knowledge and inspiration, and give people a greater understanding of themselves and what is close to them.”

Lennart Nilsson's photography is renowned for its groundbreaking images of human development and scientific subjects. We were wondering what the process of selecting and curating content for the profile looks like. Fjellström shared with us: “We tried, in the beginning, to show the diversity of his work during his 70 years as a photographer. The response was not as great as when we show the images from his series 'A Child is Born' so we mainly show images from that story. But we are quite restrictive. Not everyone understands the meaning of 'Copyright'. Most people don’t know about his earlier works. That is why we show more on the website to try to communicate his whole life journey as a photojournalist. We might change the content on Instagram further on.”

Anne told us about some of the most memorable responses she’s received from followers of Nilsson’s Instagram profile: “It is mainly the response on the A Child is Born material. We all have such different views, and that is interesting. That material has had an enormous impact and still has. We try to communicate Lennart’s aims with the material, and it is not always what others believe, or want. Most of the images from that series were photographed in the 60s. The world was quite different from today.”

Lastly, we were eager to know what message or impact Fjellström aims to convey to the followers of the photographer's account. Anne said: “That of Lennart. His vision. To make the invisible visible. And to communicate science to the public. Show the greatness in the everyday life. He was a very curious person, and that curiosity was what drove him through his life. And his love for photography. Making it possible to tell us stories with images.”