Gary Schneider

Tumor Suppressor, Gene (MLL) on Chromosome 11 and on the Nucleus, 1997

toned gelatin silver print; 29 x 31 in., each of 4 panels
(detail)
Courtesy of JGS, Inc.

In 1996, I was approached to make work in response to the Human Genome Project. I decided to marry my obsession with biology and portraiture. My mother had just died of cancer and I wanted to know if I had a genetic predisposition. The Tumor Suppressor Gene on Chromosome 11, the specimen prepared by Dr. Dorothy Warburton, was the first of fourteen images that would become my Genetic Self-Portrait. I explored images harvested from my own biology, sometimes scientific, sometimes whimsical. It became, in its totality, my emotional response to the issue of privacy in the new World of Genome.