I Am A Camera – Very Intimate Pictures

I am a camera artwork

Luke Evans and Josh Lake have created intriguing process-based photographs by turning their bodies into “cameras.” Both ingested 35mm photographic film slides and allowed their natural bodily functions to do the rest of the work as the film travelled through their digestive systems. After expelling the film in a dark room it was fixed using standard photographic techniquesand subsequently scanned using an electron microscope. The scans reveal complex abstract forms and micro topologies – the fractured textures appear to be isomorphic representations of the structures of the digestive system itself. We are invited to consider the chemical processes that operate in the body on food during digestion, and view these photographs as visualization of these processes. The project was not without possible dangers to the pair’s health. Medical experts indicated that colon perforation and obstruction were both potential risks – to minimize the possibility of injury a small capsule was eaten containing loosely rolled film frames. “Wanting to bring something on the inside to the outside, we chose to investigate how we could use our bodies to alter materials… there was absolutely no way to envision how the results would look, and that no two would be the same: would the film’s gelatin content be completely digested by enzymes? Would we ever get the film back?” explained Luke Evans.
Paul Prudence