#ayako kanda

This work by artists Ayako Kanda and Mayuka Hayashi of Musashino Art University in Japan is amazing.  These are X-ray and CT scan images of embracing couples and the prints, at least the ones shown here, seem to be on a huge scale (judging by the photo of the exhibition space).  They are monumental and haunting but also kind of sweet in a very strange way - especially this one:

I love the reference to science, using technology and photography to reveal something unseen (or unperceived) by the naked eye, and it immediately made me think of society's initial reaction to the invention of the microscope and telescope: wonder, awe, fear, disbelief, distrust in the medium of photography to capture the information.  Microscopist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) discovered tiny bacteria in droplets of water, viewed capillaries, nerves, and spermatozoa.  Another  world had been discovered and it terrified people.

John Whipple (1822–1891) made beautiful and immensely detailed photographs of the moon (most famously in daguerreotype, but also paper prints) with the aid of the telescope.  Although he was not the first person to photograph the moon, his images are fantastically accurate and allowed us to know the texture of the surface of the moon for the first time in fine detail AND beautiful composition and execution!  This is probably one of my favorite photographic images in the history of forever.

Japanese students, Ayako Kanda and Mayuka Hayashi, decided to take the road less traveled by when it comes to photographing couples during intimate moments by making use of x-rays and CT scans.

It is both groundbreaking and innovative, so much so that they were awarded the Mitsubishi Chemical Junior Designer Award. 

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