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This article explores some conditions and effects of the publishing of Lennart Nilsson's photographs of embryos and fetuses in magazines and other media. It looks especially at how these images related to the abortion controversies in Sweden in the wake of the first Abortion Act in 1938 and up to the second and still current legislation in 1974. During the period Nilsson contributed photographs to anti-abortion campaigns led by prominent doctors and supported by editors in the popular press. The embryos and fetuses depicted in the images were increasingly aestheticised and their human traits emphasised. After the 1965 publication of 'Drama of Life before Birth' in Life magazine and A Child is Born, however, his photo essays started to express a more positive view of abortion on demand. It is suggested that these shifting strategies and visual styles can be connected to the various interests of Nilsson and his collaborators. ; Medicine at the borders of life: Fetal research and the emergence of ethical controversy in Sweden

Exploring a wide variety of visualizations of pregnancy and fetuses through 300 years of history, this timely volume offers a fresh look at the influential feminist concept of the "public fetus." Images of pregnant and fetal bodies are today visible everywhere. Through ultrasound screenings at maternity clinics, birth videos on social media platforms, or antiabortion propaganda, visualizations of pregnancy are available and accessible as never before. The origins of today's visual culture of pregnancy are often traced back to the 1960s, when Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson's stunning photographs of human development were published in Life magazine and widely disseminated over the world. But the public display of pregnant and fetal bodies actually has a much longer and more complex history. In this timely book, a group of scholars from a range of disciplines explores this multifaceted history by highlighting visualizations of pregnant and fetal bodies in a variety of geographical and cultural contexts, spanning a period of more than 300 years. By reengaging with the crucial concept of the "public fetus," coined by feminist scholars in the 1980s and 1990s, the volume aims to revitalize the scholarly discussion on the visual culture of pregnancy and demonstrate the constructed nature of fetal images. Including chapters on a wide variety of representations in different media, such as wet specimen collections, papier-mâché models, sculpture, film, and photography, the book provides a much-needed argument against the widespread notion of the "universal" fetus. On publication this title is available as an Open Access ebook under the Creative Commons License: CC-BY-NC-ND.

Participatory media in historical perspective: an introduction / Anders Ekström ... [et al.] -- From enlightened participation to liberal professionalism : on the historiography of the press as a resource for legitimacy / Patrik Lundell -- Knowing audiences, knowing media : performing publics at the early twentieth-century fun fair / Anders Ekström -- Civic media : city exhibitions and the visual culture of community, c. 1900 / Frans Lundgren -- Creating audiences, making participants : the cylinder phonograph in ethnographic fieldwork / Mathias Boström -- The interactivity of the model home / Mark B. Sandberg -- Touring the Congo : mobility and materiality in missionary media / Lotten Gustafsson Reinius -- Say milk, say cheese! inscribing public participation in the photographic archives of the national milk propaganda / Ylva Habel -- Daniel Ellsberg and the lost idea of the photocopy / Lisa Gitelman -- Fetal photography in the age of cool media / Solveig Jülich -- Expedition Robinson, reality TV, and the history of the social experiment / Per Wisselgren -- History on the web : museums, digital media, and participation / Bodil Axelsson