Artist Blog
Every week an artist whose single image was published by Der Greif is given a platform in which to blog about contemporary photography.
1/13 The Sick Rose - Book cover / Richard Barnett / Thames & Hudson
2/13 The Sick Rose - The back, torso and thighs of a patient suffering from congenital syphilis
3/13 The Sick Rose - Various forms of gangrene affecting the skin and underlying tissues (l) | Gangrene of the left foot, resulting from frostbite
4/13 The Sick Rose - The face of a male patient showing rupia (l) | A woman’s face, badly affected with lesions of impetigo on the nose, cheeks and upper lip (r)
5/13 The Sick Rose - Dissections showing the appearance and effects of pulmonary tuberculosis
6/13 The Sick Rose - Punctate psoriasis, affecting the chest and shoulders of a female patient (l) | An extremely severe case of pemphigus foliaceus in a young boy (r)
7/13 he Sick Rose - Metastatic growths in various tissues (l) | Primary and metastatic growths in the intestines, lung and other tissues (r)
8/13 The Sick Rose - Syphilitic sclerosis of the mouth in a male patient (l) | Three images of condylomatous iritis, a form of inflammation thought to be characteristic of syphilis (r)
9/13 The Sick Rose - Various types of cancer in the tongue
10/13 The Sick Rose - A dissection and section of the heart, showing pericarditis, an inflammation of the membrane enclosing the heart
11/13 The Sick Rose - Close-up of syphilitic ulceration of an internal organ (l) | The head of a male patient suffering from tertiary syphilis (r)
12/13 The Sick Rose - Syphilitic inflammation of perineum and anus in male patient (l) | Syphilitic ulceration of the geniltals in a male patient and a female patient (r)
13/13 The Sick Rose - Syphilitic malformations of the permanent teeth (l) | The head, shoulders and hands of a male infant suffering from hereditary syphilis (r)
Who knew disease and death could look this good?
Mar 03, 2017 - Erik Franssen
Maybe my love for horror movies is to blame, but I cannot keep my eyes of these images. There is something exciting about images that gross you out and attract you at the same time, about the physical sensation they bring about. Look at the small picture of the inflamed eye caused by Syphilis for example! The wonderful illustrations in The Sick Rose, a publication about disease, are so strong and compelling in their use of color and detailed description, that I want to look at them again and again. These visuals in this beautiful designed publication hail from an age before color photography and therefore remind me of what has been lost because of it and of how far we’ve come in tackling certain diseases. We are so much focussed on a specific physical beauty nowadays that we’re disconnected from the beauty of the complexity within our bodies, from the exceptional machine that we are. And like machines we can be broken and this book shows this in all its splendor.
1/10 Plaats Delict Amsterdam - Book cover / Nieuw Amsterdam Publishers
2/10 Plaats Delict Amsterdam - ’83 Knifing / Guldenhandsteeg
3/10 Plaats Delict Amsterdam - ’75 Attempted manslaughter / De Baarsjes
4/10 Plaats Delict Amsterdam - ’72 Shooting dancing / Zeedijk (l) | ’73 Autopsy on corpse in homicide investigation / Noord (r)
5/10 Plaats Delict Amsterdam - ’84 Stained victim / Studio Central Police Station
6/10 Plaats Delict Amsterdam - ’69 Suicide (l) | ’69 Victim overdose (r)
7/10 Plaats Delict Amsterdam - ’77 Suspect with smuggling trousers / Studio Central Police Station (l) | ’77 Robber’s loot / Studio Central Police Station (r)
8/10 Plaats Delict Amsterdam - ’82 Physical abuse victim / Studio Central Police Station (l) | ’82 Corpse discovery / Oud West (r)
9/10 Plaats Delict Amsterdam - ’84 Robber / Studio Central Police Station (l) | ’84 Suspect in disguise / Studio Central Police Station (r)
10/10 Plaats Delict Amsterdam - ’80 Failed breakout attempt with deadly end Penal institution / Overamstel
The attraction also lies in the fact that you’re not supposed to look at the suffering of others, that you’re invading their privacy like a voyeur. Another fine example are the images in Plaats Delict (crime scene) that come from the Amsterdam police archives between 1965 and 1985. Looking at the well balanced selection of pictures in the book many questions and contradictory feelings come up. Some images send a shiver over my spine and overwhelm me with a sense of sadness and loneliness and I wonder how these people ended up like this? Looking at others I catch myself wondering if it is even possible for the body to stay in a certain position after one’s deceased? Like the man in the kitchen sink who yet seems to be standing up, which gives the scene, supported by the neat kitchen, a surreal quality . The studio photographs on the other hand have a fashion sensibility to them because of the colored background and well lit details and the disguised in the book look funny and clumsy. The background of that period helps a great deal. It helps the viewer to keep a certain distance and view it as a reminder of the past, not as a current reality, which is a misconception of course. For most people to view images of this content there is need for a certain abstraction and the editorial staff did a great job in their selection process by preserving the right amount of mystery.