2.03.2010

LAURIE TüMER: Glowing Evidence

Glowing Evidence: Hector's Hands
Photograph (c) Laurie Tumer /All Rights Reserved

"I always thought of myself as environmentally aware, but a pesticide poisoning at home in 1998 motivated me to deepen my understanding. As I read more about the health and environmental consequences of pesticides, I expected pictures. When I saw none, I began to look for ways to make my own, to help me understand something difficult to imagine: the invisible ubiquity of pesticides, not only their presence on conventional farms but how they find their way unwittingly into our homes and our bodies. I found inspiration in the research of the environmental scientist Richard Fenske, who developed a safety-training demonstration using fluorescent tracer dyes and UV light to show farm workers who work with pesticides, pictures of their exposures despite protective gear...With support from Dr. Fenske's colleagues, I learned this technique, not necessarily for its usefulness to instruct but because of how unposed subjects seen under another visual spectrum appear theatrical, distilling a personal and collective story."

5 comments:

davidpostatny said...

I shall never understand the use of pesticides or toxines, of any artifical growing substances for vegetables and cereales, of any preservatives in the food. I live in Romania and common people dont use it. You can see home made sausages, with no preservatives, that can be stored for months, you can see great healthy potatoes, apples, wheat and corn, with no toxines. We are poisoning our planet, we are poinsoning the water and the earth. And the payback time is almost here. It is not about now, it's about future.

Susan said...

Eeek! Makes for good photography but what about the poor farmers' health?

Nezzy (Cow Patty Surprise) said...

What an interesting picture!

Ya'll have a fantastic weekend!!!

Eva said...

Fascinating picture to remind us what we are doing to our selves and our environment.

felinnoir said...

Etrange et envoutant.