Artist Statement

A bacterial sexually transmitted infection is a living, growing, mutating thing that exists within the human body.  The act of transmission is often sexy; yet what is transmitted is menacing.  The bacterial STIs before you (BV, Chlamydia, Trichomonas, Gonorrhea and Syphilis) can be silent for women and have little to no symptoms for men:  they reveal themselves mainly through medical tests.  Without testing, the cycle continues: without noticeable symptoms, no treatments are received; without treatments, the infections are unknowingly passed to others.  Though mostly silent, all of these infections have potentially catastrophic side effects like pelvic inflammatory disease, joint disease, meningitis, sterility and fatal pregnancies.  Although we should have eradicated these long ago, bacterial STIs continue to exist.  We know the statistics, are familiar with the names & often see images of the effects; however, we do not often know what these STDs look like.  By presenting these images to you, I hope to both draw you in and make you aware of this ongoing health concern. 

Transmission’s images are created by using open-source imagery from the Center for Disease Control.  The images were altered, and then converted into digital negatives, which were used to print the cyanotypes.  The prints are embedded in resin within Petri dishes.  Each STI is represented in various images and whose information and prevention can be read about in an accompanying artist book.