Angela Strassheim – from the series “Evidence” –  see a wonderful – beautiful “e-catalogue”

Cara Philips – Untitled #40 – from the series “Ultraviolet Beauties”

Two “new” bodies of work by two women photographers I greatly admire share an interesting coincidence revealing that which you can not see alone with the naked eye – but is none-the-less right before us.

Angela Strassheim’s work from the Evidence Series – reveals (potentially) hidden violence of past events through a forensic technique where by blood stains are made visible under special chemical spray. See the exhibition shots / photos here at the Marvelli Gallery.

Cara Phillips’ work from the Ultraviolet Series reveals (potentially) hidden damage beneath the skin as revealed through UV light photography of human skin.

Both sets of images are quite nice.  Of course I’ve admired Strassheim’s work before when I’ve seen it at the Faulconer Gallery,  Grinnell, Iowa.  Strassheim’s Evidence Series is scary beautiful and a bit creepy but also for me  touches upon how we tend to have to “cover it up” and forget the past sometimes in order to move on – haunting and mysterious.

Philips work is also scary beautiful (but not creepy) touching upon themes of beauty (or perhaps just what is considered beautiful these days) in human form and surface.  What will those “blotches” become in the future? Both record a series of invisible scars under the surface so to speak – yet one clearly points to things in the past while the other points to things in the “here and now” or even – one might imagine – a horribly scary future….

Wouldn’t it be great to see these (and other “invisible” work like this) together ?

UPDATE: – sidenote…  a funny coincident tangential post about “retouching before the day’s of photoshop” over here on Conscientious “…the photographic lens is an instrument of great precision, but it does not discriminate between the essential and the unessential…” source – page 6.