6 Have Spoken

Plastination: A Photo Essay

Posted by Ross Rosenberg

plastination02_leiche.jpg

plastination09_hirn.jpg

German photographer Mark Steinmetz’s photo-essay on the plastination process invented by Gunther von Hagens’, whose Bodies Body Worlds exhibit tours the world nauseating and fascinating people in equal measure. In the top photo von Hagens examines the corpse of a 77-year-old woman who died of lung cancer. The second shows eighteen slices of plastinated brain being cured under ultraviolet light. The black stains are the massive hemorrhage that killed the donor. The rest of the set, which includes a fantastic photo of von Hagens using a band-saw to slice a cadaver into paper-thin sheets, is equally as fascinating but may be unsafe for the workplace.

Plastination [Marc Steinmetz Photography] : Morbid Anatomy : Medgadget


Categories: Anatomy, Art, Medicine, NSFW
Posted at 2:53 pm on July 16, 2008
6 Comments -

6 COMMENTS ARE NOT ENOUGH

    Dr. von Hagens exhibits are BODY WORLDS…not Bodies. Bodies exhibits are the exhibits who have to pay back patrons who visited the NY showing, because they cannot confirm where their Chinese plastinated bodies come from, where Dr. von Hagens has documentation for all his specimens.

    Comment by barb — July 16, 2008 @ 4:12 pm

    Executed tortured Chinese political prisoners, on display without consent for the pleasure and profit of others. Yeah…

    Comment by Miserable Pedant — July 16, 2008 @ 4:29 pm

    ^ I hadn’t heard about that Bodies exhibition.. that’s rather messed up..

    I went to see Body Worlds in London a few years ago. It was on an art trip but seemed more like the greatest biology lesson on Earth. I don’t really understand why it’s attracted as much controversy as it has.

    Oh wait, there was a deformed baby section. And a ‘cross section’ of a pregnant lady.. not for the faint hearted I guess.

    Comment by rhys — July 16, 2008 @ 4:54 pm

    ..And Gunther von Hagens was at the exhibition when I was visiting. Wearing his hat of course.

    Forgot about that..

    Comment by rhys — July 16, 2008 @ 4:58 pm

    I saw the exhibit this spring at the Milwaukee Museum & found it beautiful & fascinating. There’s even a man riding a horse in there for cripes sake!

    The babies were in their own little room, presumably for the faint of heart but none of them were opened up like the rest of the plastinates. I was a little disappointed because I wanted to compare their insides to the rest. Especially their BRAAAINS.

    Comment by Evil Jim — July 16, 2008 @ 5:09 pm

    hagens is a hack and a showman.
    and he should take off that goddamned hat.

    fragonard is an artist:
    http://musee.vet-alfort.fr/Site_GB/index2.htm

    “Groupe de foetus”
    http://musee.vet-alfort.fr/Site_GB/imfoetus.htm

    Comment by Haux — July 18, 2008 @ 4:40 am

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