Colleen Fitzgerald

“Wound Compression (from series ‘Treatment’)”

ARTIST STATEMENT

My current work focuses on the transformative affect of medicine on the body. Through abstract photographs, I reveal the hidden structures present in medicine and medical treatments, such as infrared heat therapy, antibiotics, moxibustion, and pain medication. These elements are applied directly to 4×5 sheets of film; therefore, the film is treated as the body, transferring contemporary modes of healing from my body to the photographic ground. In this work I treat the film as if it is itself an open wound, a delicate body needing care. The work involves no light or camera, but rather alchemy and the physical endurance of the film. The image references the moment of transformation present in all bodies that are subject to treatment within modern medicine.

ARTIST BIO

I live and work in New York City and received my MFA in Photography and Related Media from Parsons the New School for Design. I have taught and studied photography in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain, and Florence, Italy. My work has been featured on the cover of the book ‘Morning’ and in the Pingyao International Photography Festival, China.

Selected by Julian Cox, Chief Curator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.