Kirlian photography has been thought by some to have the power to diagnose human or other biological entities physical and mental states. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any serious scientific results (due to the stringent requirements of scientific method) in favor of this process as a diagnostic tool.
My interest in Kirlian photography was piqued during a long period of illness that required frequent X-rays. I became curious about the aesthetic and metaphorical possibilities of using electricity to expose film. One of the first pictures I made via electricity was the "Heart Shaped Leaf". In this simple leaf from a Red Bud tree was the symbolic shape for the human heart. It was the heart that feels love and pain and resonates with its own mythology. The picture that resulted with its bolts of lightning shooting out from its whole circumference spoke volumes to me. In the physiological sense it reminds me of the human heart that pumps blood through the body and the fact that it works only because of the electrical stimuli. Without that stimulus we die. In the photograph "Briar" I felt as though I could see the way that thought processes might transpire in the brain. A thought becomes an electrical signal and is transferred over a synaptic gap. A spark occurs. The signal moves further down the line until it is processed.......
I think of these photographs as making the invisible visible. They make references to the electro-chemical processes required of living beings to exist. To my own mind they even speak to the current theory that all life on earth began in a primordial soup literally sparked to life by atmospheric lightning. At the very least I find them simply fascinating and beautiful to look at.
* This passage is taken pretty much verbatim from the book "Kirlian Photography - A Hands on Guide" by John Iovine.
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