Glowing Evidence: Hector's HandsPhotograph (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."
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