• Home
  • Portfolios
    • Prior Pleasures
    • VISUAL DNA...the language of photographs
    • Mimi and Her Purses
    • I Can Only Remember What I Don't Forget
    • Mothers and Daughters
    • Letting Go/Holding Back
    • Unorthodox Anatomy
    • Family
    • Constricted_Covid
    • Next Year In Jerusalem
    • Dichotomy
  • PDF's
  • Installation Photographs
  • Exhibitions
  • About
  • Artist Statement
  • Contact
Ellen Cantor Fine Art Photography
Ellen Cantor Fine Art Photography
    Portfolios
      Prior Pleasures
      VISUAL DNA...the language of photographs
      Mimi and Her Purses
      I Can Only Remember What I Don't Forget
      Mothers and Daughters
      Letting Go/Holding Back
      Unorthodox Anatomy
      Family
      Constricted_Covid
      Next Year In Jerusalem
      Dichotomy
    PDF's
    Installation Photographs
    Exhibitions
    About
    Artist Statement
    Contact
UNORTHODOX ANATOMY
 “The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.”Aristotle

Several years ago, I descended into spinal purgatory, unable to walk or stand for very long. Suffering with unrelenting leg and hip pain, I tried exercise, meditation, physical therapy and acupuncture. Having been diagnosed with scoliosis, spondylolisthesis and stenosis, I started to visualize the anatomy of my lumbar spine and what it meant to be out of alignment. I imagined the spine’s complex network of bones, muscles, nerves and discs and how they could be causing me so much discomfort.

Using sculpture and photography as a means of expressing my pain, I created artworks that reflect my desire to understand what was happening to my vertebrae and how surgery might change the structure of my spine.

This series of photographs, from sculptures I have created, focuses on my perception of pain and the spine and how pain can impact mortality and my perception of aging. Based on my medical diagnoses, I perceived my body and my vertebrae as both organic and inorganic materials with the spine out of shape, constricted, disintegrating or collapsing.

Through allusion and metaphor, I am addressing images of pain sensations and options for living. For this series, I have created a visualization of what my spine looks like to me--not the real spine, but an unorthodox view of my anatomy. These photographs convey my feelings of living with a disability, the pain of aging and daily confrontation with my mortality.

Unorthodox Anatomy
Portfolio is empty Upload Images
i
Inquire about this Artwork