One of the beautiful phenomena of the 21st century has become, to be more precise, becoming conscious parenthood. More and more couples are thinking about the equal partnership in such an important issue as childbearing. After all, it is not a secret for anyone that raising bunnies on the lawn, when your clock has already struck twelve, and you yourself are like a pumpkin, is wow, what a difficult task. An occupation that usually fell on the shoulders of mothers. Thankfully, dads are becoming more and more interested in direct, included parenting, which is great!
Deciding to highlight one of the aspects of parenthood, codenamed “decree”, Swedish photographer Johan Bavman created a photo project in which he captured fathers who went on “vacation” to care for a child.
Fredrik Janson and his son Ossian
Andreas Bergström and sons Sam and Elliot
Juan Cardenal with son Ivo and daughter Alma
The Swedish Fathers project was created to showcase the small percentage of dads who want to spend the first months of life with their children.
Tjord van Weyenburg and Tim
Jonas Faldt with daughters Siri and Lovis
Sweden has one of the most generous parental leave policies. In total, the state provides up to 480 days of paid leave.
Urban Nord with his son Holger
Ola Larsson and Gustav
The purpose of encouraging fathers is to promote gender equality.
Martin Gagner with his daughter and son Valdemar
John Wallin and babies Ines and Johannes
But even with government support, a very small percentage of popes exercise their right to the decree.
Markus Bargquist with Ted and Sigge
Louis Coolau with son Elling
One of the goals of this project is the photographer’s desire to introduce the world to the interesting Swedish parenting system.
Fredrik Appelberg with his daughter Mayken
Yoran Sevelin with baby Liv
And the second goal is to inspire fathers around the world to spend more time with their young children, who need equal participation from both mom and dad.
Peter Herkel with daughter Mira
Patrick Barrseter and baby Eyra
With all this, Johan Bavman does not want to glorify the uniqueness of these dads in the vein of “what a good fellow”, belittling maternal merits. On the contrary, it creates an environment for discussing “Why did these dads become unique.”