Black Light

Beautiful selection of black light photographs showing the finger prints from goods made in China. Slightly unnerving quality to them.

When we purchase objects adorned with “Made in China” stickers, we rarely stop to consider what that means. We tend to regard the toys, tools, and electronics we buy as being absent of history. Yet even the most mass-produced of objects can tell a story, if you know how to look for it. In an effort to collapse the distance between producer and consumer, the photographer Lorena Turner purchased knickknacks that had been made in China and sold in the United States; she then dusted them for finger prints and shot them under black lights. “Fingerprints don’t reveal identity intuitively,” says Turner, “but they do communicate a human touch, that someone had a physical connection and maybe even an emotional connection to an object.”

What follows is a selection from Lorena Turner’s “Made in China.”

One Reply to “Black Light”

  1. Blacklights are lights that have been specially coated so they transmit UV light. Because our eyes cannot see this spectrum of light, rooms lit with blacklight appear dark. The notable exception to this is that white objects and some other light colors seem to glow when exposed to blacklight. It is this weird glow that makes blacklights so popular at Halloween.

    What makes the glow is substances called phospors. Phospors emit visible light when exposed to UV radiation. Phospors occur naturally and are in many laundry detergents. Phospors can occur in objects that are not white but they do not emit enough light to shine brightly against dark subjects. This leaves the white and light-colored objects to glow under blacklight.

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