Laura A. Snyder (b. 1973)

In an artist’s statement about her work, Laura Snyder wrote:

“The conceptual basis for this research is drawn from historical medical illustrations from the Enlightenment period (1600-1800), which marked the beginning stages of a curiosity which motivated the systematic investigations into the architecture and functions of the body. This project has a twofold objective in that it is undertaken as an exploration of the self and the body in general. Using illustrations from this time period I am involved in an examination of my own body, similar to the investigations which led to the explorations of the Enlightenment period. Thus, I am placing myself at that same level of unknowing and discovery that occurred at the beginning stages of understanding how the body functions. Using a broad range of slides of significant, historic, medical illustrations projected onto my own body and photographed, I am creating an interpretive juxtaposition of historic and actual representation. The strategy of projecting these images onto my own body and moving in and out of them is a performance-like act of donning the masks of others’ interpretations of the body, which when photographed combine with the reality of my own body. Within the synthesis of these two interacting interpretations lies the basis of my work.

“The color photos, which are thus created, investigate and question the viewer’s knowledge and understanding of the human body, contrasted with the conventions of archaic medical history. How much do we really know about our own bodies? How much of what we are told do we believe, against what we inherently know about ourselves?

“The use of the life-size image (40” x 70”) is meant to place the viewer and the photograph on the same level, in terms of scale, thus forming a level of confrontation. It is my intention to make the viewer question our conventions of viewing the body, and how it functions, as well as to increase the awareness and appreciation of the body itself.”