Visible Humans

With artist and ophthalmologist Benjamin Freeman and curator Elisabeth Sherman in person

The Visible Human Project began in the late 1990s with sponsorship from the National Library of Medicine. Its aim was to make a complete 3D rendering of the human body for educational use. Now in the public domain, these images raise questions about consent and normative ideals. This evening will interrogate this project and feature a screening of the short film Visible Woman, which is included in our exhibition Overexposed; a presentation by ophthalmologist and photographer Benjamin Freeman; and a discussion including curator Elisabeth Sherman.

Tickets: $17.50 / $12 senior and students / $10 youth / free for MoMI members. There is a $1.50 transaction fee per ticket for all online purchases. The cost of admission may be applied toward a same-day purchase of a membership.

Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission.

Special Guests:

Elisabeth Sherman is the Robert A. and Elizabeth Rohn Jeffe Chief Curator and Deputy Director at the Museum of the City of New York. Previously, she was Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at the International Center of Photography (ICP). Prior to ICP, she was a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she organized and co-organized many critically acclaimed exhibitions including Dawoud Bey: An American Project, Zoe Leonard: Survey, and Making Knowing: Craft in Art, 1960-2019. At ICP she curated, among others, Naima Green: Instead, I Spin Fantasies, Sheida Soleimani: Panjereh, Yto Barrada: Part Time Abstractionist, and ICP at 50. She is co-editor of the catalog Overexposed: Art, Technology, and the Body.

Benji Freeman is a photographer and physician based in New York City. His photography draws from medical epistemologies, techniques, and image archives, investigating the modern aesthetics of caring for others as the actual work of healthcare becomes increasingly automatable. He has taught workshops on photographic technique, the visual culture of medicine, and the anatomy of the visual system, and he has written about the role of photographic perception in medical education. He is currently an ophthalmology resident at Columbia University Medical Center.