After Image

During a collaboration with Neurologist John Kew and Neuropsychologist Peter Halligan to research and visualise phantom limbs, I interviewed and photographed eight people with amputated limbs. I then made a series of photographs of each person interviewed. People are photographed in their own homes. A ‘straight’ portrait is included in each series to ‘normalise’ the more bizarre images of phantoms. Exhibited beside each set of images is a text, derived from the interview, in which each person describes the history of their phantom limb experience. The work aims to question what is normal and to investigate the relationship between identity and the body in order to challenge public attitudes to physical differences and disabilities.

Since its production in 1997, images from the After Image series have been shown in a broad range of art and science contexts internationally.

24 digitally manipulated colour C Type prints (56 x 75 cm) mounted on foamex; 16 small text panels.

This project was one of the first SciArt Collaborations sponsored by The Wellcome Trust