The Ninth Month, by Catherine Steinmann,
Exquisite Nude Photographs of Mothers-to-Be,
Released in April 2004

The Ninth Month, an exquisite collection of photographs by Catherine Steinmann celebrating the female body’s ninth month of pregnancy, released by Park Island Press in April 2004

Steinmann has spent two decades photographing pregnant nudes. Her sensitive and empathetic eye captures not only the pregnant body’s graceful form, but also the experience of pregnancy in a most life-affirming light. Her photographs are sensuous, personal, and strikingly graphic. The Ninth Month is lavishly designed, with velvety tri-tone reproductions on warm matte paper. The photographs are organized in two sections, New York and Kaua’i. New York introduces subjects who pose with expressive translucent fabrics in the studio. Kaua’i presents photographs made on the idyllic Hawaiian island, where the women are in a water environment.In Catherine Steinmann’s words, she provides “a mirror reflecting women’s souls” days before they give birth. Radiating life, The Ninth Month gently but firmly shatters social taboos that favor hiding the full form of the pregnant woman. Catherine Steinmann’s sensitive and empathetic eye captures not only the pregnant body’s graceful form, but also the experience of pregnancy in its most life-affirming light. “My purpose in photographing a mother-to-be is to make her feel wonderful about herself and positive about being seen and recorded at such a vulnerable time in her life,” says Catherine Steinmann in her opening text.
“Whether partially covered or nude, the expectant mother always looks ethereal and beautiful to me.”