Photographs Modified by Bacteria

“Photographs Modified by Bacteria” from Ron Geipel depicts the symbiosis of classical analog photography in combination with organic structures made from microorganisms such as bacteria.

The project contains themes of life, transformation, creativity and ends portraying a destructive process of obliteration.

Bacteria put on classical analog film material is reproduces itself over a period of weeks by eating the different organic and chemical elements of the film emulsion.
For digitalization, the images are taken out in between the active process, air-dried and captured with a special macro device allowing high resolution starting from 260 mega pixels. The original photo is captured in various versions with a continuous rotting process.
After a period of about 3 months, the process is stopped, the organic material of the film is completely eaten, the image becomes white or transparent, and the colonies of bacteria starve and die.

This process of decomposing is still not under control after testing and study for years. Chaos and randomization are the biggest attributing factors.

Name: 
Ron Geipel