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The precipice / Tony Chirinos -- Between science and the sacred / Eugenie Shinkle -- What the body holds / Michelle Otero -- Remember me / Claudia Isidron. "The precipice where the body rests on the unseen point between life and death was one that I witnessed many times in the surgical suite. As a hospital photographer, I watched the performance of costumed medical professionals as they opened, sliced, cauterized, sponged, and reversed many of the same motions all in the attempt to heal the patient. The covered, anonymous patient thus puts their only true possession, their human body, in a state of vulnerability, exposing their delicate flesh in an attempt at a physical redemption. I became fascinated and deeply affected by both the drama and utter ordinariness of it, and the absoluteness of the process. Surgery was like an opera, a pageant; the actors, props, stage and lighting all hinging viscerally to the end of each patient's earthly tale. It is this drama, this intense moment of transformation and the mystery of the unknown, the beauty and the tragedy, that I seek to capture in my images. The three projects in Farewell - the Surgical Theater, Morgue, and Tools examine of the physical nature of the body; look at the sterility, formality, and impersonal environments of the medical environment; and present their tools as typological and anthropomorphic symbols for both the procedures, and the bodies that they explore and dissect and their design for human use"--
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