I wanna take pictures of dead things. Where to start?

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking (and whining) about my career. After some reflection, I remembered when I was the happiest doing my job. When I worked in oncology, one of my duties was to take pictures of organs and tumors during necropsies. (Some examples of my work can be seen here and here .) I enjoyed the adventure of dissection* and the challenge of getting the photos just right.

Maybe I’m not looking correctly, but searches for “pathology + photography” haven’t been fruitful. Does anyone know of a group or program for this sort of work?

*[Gump] Life is like a transgenic mouse, you’ll never know what you’re gonna find.[/G]

Everyone has a calling, so far be it for me to poke fun.

Are you thinking of Crime Scene and Evidence Photography? Or perhaps Clinical Photography?

Get a cat.

Got two and three quarters. The oldest killed and ate my snake. :smiley:

Did you take pictures?

No, I don’t know of any specific artists that deal with dead things, but that will be the joy in your work. You’ll be inventing an entirely new field.

I guess you better start experimenting with different cameras and light set ups.

Uhhh, have fun?

There is such a job as “medical photographer”; I took a course taught by one once. Some, maybe most, big research universities have offices providing graphics help to researchers who need it, and there are independent firms doing similar work; google on “biomedical communications” or “medical communications”.

I don’t know of any specific college programs in medical photography, but I haven’t looked for any. There are a few master’s level programs in medical and biomedical illustration, but I believe they expect candidates to already know how to draw.

Some technical specialties, like electron microscopy and histology, involve a lot of picture taking. You might think about those.

What kind of snake? What constitutes 3/4 of a cat?

I have a friend who has a roadkill photo scrapbook as a hobby. I must admit that some of her photographs are really neat, but I can’t express an interest in taking photos of all those sad looking raccoons I see while driving to work every day. (They often are on their side, not flattened, and look like they could use a hug.)

I’m sure if you’re interested in that, you could get a good start if you live in a heavily populated area.

There is a special interest module on my course on medical illustration. I think biomeds can also take it. So there are courses out there, presumably ones that you don’t have to do two years of medicine to get into. Oh, and there was another special interest module in the first year on forensic pathology, that involved a lot of photography.

If you enjoy “the adventure of dissection” and taking photos of organs, one career to consider is that of a pathology assistant. PAs handle pathology specimens ranging from biopsies to large multi-organ resections, taking tissue sections for microscopic evaluation. Depending on the job, they may also do autopsy prosections i.e. being the diener who makes the major incisions, removes organ blocks and sews up the body when the autopsy is completed. A good PA should be in demand and the pay isn’t bad (55K or more to start in our area, veteran PAs up to 70-75K). It’s usually a two-year program.

There might be a subspecialty niche for a medical photographer in a large university setting, serving different departments.

Whatever you do, don’t say “I wanna take pictures of dead things” at your job interview. They’re liable to suggest you develop your hobby by lying in wait along the Interstate. :slight_smile:

And do not follow in the footsteps of this guy.

2 foot king snake. Jake ate him. Retired bayou cat, reptiles were not unusual for him.
Elwood lost his left hind leg as a kitten. I joke that he’s three-quarters of a cat. Ironically, he’s the largest cat we own.
Here’s Astrix just so he doesn’t feel left out.

Ah, no. Didn’t own a camera then. . .

Thank you. I’ll do some research along this line and see what comes up. :cool:

Thanks! I’ll look into this. I have never encountered a cadaver, but I’ve handled bits of human.

I thought “dead things” would get more attention than than, “I want a career in pathological photography/medical imaging.” I’ll try to curb my enthusiasm when an interview comes up. :slight_smile:

Wow. “In poor taste” doesn’t even begin to cover what this guy did. :frowning:

For an example of a photographic artist who, like that Condon guy, worked in a morgue and uses dead people (or parts of them) in his work, BUT who has *good * taste (IMHO, and the opinion of many), and AFAIK has never done anything illegal (I believe he stopped working in the morgue before taking up professional photography), see the work of Joel Peter Witkin. He has given articulate, interesting interviews (in the magazing Aperture, for one), so it really would be worth your time to look him up. Shouldn’t be hard – he’s internationally recognized, as much for his meticulous post-exposure skills and his awareness of 15th-to-18th-century European painting styles, as for his creative and beautiful (though admittedly sometimes disturbing) use of cadavers.