In 2020, Covid-19 spread across the world with devastating effects. The resulting pandemic has not only led to an unprecedented global health and economic crisis, it has significantly changed the way we live. It is almost incomprehensible that a virus, invisible to the naked eye, can leave its trace in such a significant way.
During lockdown, I started to think about how micro-organisms are all around us and how their activity mostly goes unnoticed. This work is a series of biograms that attempt to visually represent this on-going activity, documenting their presence and making a permanent record of this monumental period of our lives.
A piece of film is exposed to a source of bacteria and stored in a cool, dark place for a number of weeks. The bacteria feed on the film’s silver gelatin emulsion, destabilizing it. As the culture grows, it consumes the gelatin as a food source and liberates the silver particles into abstract patterns. Eventually the bacteria die and no more changes occurs. The film visibly altered is scanned, a permanent record of their activity.
