Tag: illness

Utrechtse Krop, 1999 (exhibition)

Paul Kooiker

Utrechtse Krop was the name given to a thyroid condition once common in the Dutch town of Utrecht, due to a deficiency of iodine in drinking water.

Utrechtse Krop [the exhibition] showed unique medical historical photographs alongside work by Dutch photographer and artist Paul Kooiker.
The exhibition Utrechtse Krop in De Kabinetten van De Vleeshal centred around the appeal of illness and the fragility of our physical being. The photographs on display came from the archives of Utrecht`s university hospital – records of medical disorders, photographed since circa 1890.
In the early days of medical photography clinical standards had yet to be formulated for photographic images. Consequently, many photographs are more poignant and beautiful than they are scientific. Light, space and patients complete submission to doctors and photographers evoke feelings of compassion, surprise, embarrassment and amusement rather than disgust or scientific curiosity. [x]