Fine Art nominee

HY•ST•ER•IA: Body as Battleground 

Work in Progress

“The term hysteria comes from the Greek word “hysterika”, meaning Uterus. In ancient Greece, it was believed that a wandering and discontented Uterus was blamed for that dreaded female ailment of excessive emotion, hysteria.” 

Hysteria and the Wandering Womb 

academic.mu.edu/meissnerd/hysteria.html

“The true artist is also paradoxically the true personal mystic.”
Eva Hesse

Last year I was diagnosed with Stage 1 endometrial cancer and had to undergo a complete hysterectomy. I embarked upon this series in an attempt to fathom and artistically represent the emotional and physical changes that my body is going through. 

The dress is the center stage upon which my drama unfolds and speaks to my sense of a lost femininity due to the loss of my womb. Symbols from a tarot card reading done prior to the procedure refer to my surgery and psychological response. Photographs of my body, medical procedures, and human conflict are some of the actors in my performance.

I use a variation on the antiquarian lumen printing process to obtain the images of the dresses. The original lumen process used plant material placed on photosensitive paper and exposed by the sun. For this work I place

Exhibited in the 4th Biennale of Fine Art and Documentary Photography in Berlin, finalist in the Alternative Process category of the 9th Pollux Awards, a finalist in the Alternative Process and Portraits categories of the 7th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, a finalist in the Alternative Process and Fine Art categories of the 8th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, published in the DIFFUSION ANNUAL 2016. Finalist in both the Fine Art and Nude & Figure Categories of the Second Charles Dodson Awards. interPHOTO, Salon des Expositions, Bâtiment du Canot Sauvetage, Roscoff, France, MOSCOW PHOTO AWARDS Honorable Mention for the What We Leave Behind series. Honorable Mention 2018 WOMEN SEEN BY WOMEN, A SPECIAL EDITION OF THE JULIA MARGARET CAMERON AWARDS. 2016 POLLUX AWARDS, Finalist in the Alternative Process category. Recent exhibitions include NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY FELLOWSHIP COMPETITION - DEVELOPED WORK, Midwest Center for Photography, Wichita, KS for my HY•ST•ER•IA: Body as Battleground series. Included in ALL ABOUT PHOTO Magazine first issue LIGHT, selections from my Midnight Mysteries series. EXPANDING BOUNDARIES, Los Angeles Center of Photography, FACES at SITE: Brooklyn, Honorable Mention in the LAPhotoCurator competition THE TANGIBLE PHOTOGRAPH.