Hidden Beauty: Exploring the Aesthetics of Medical Science

Exhibition Website

Jan 18 2018 - Mar 9 2018

This collaborative project by a scientist and an artist from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine considers the aesthetics of human disease, a dynamically powerful force of nature that acts without regard to race, religion, or culture.

More than sixty medical science professionals present photographs of visually stunning patterns of different diseases affecting various areas of the human anatomy in this exhibition. Captured with a variety of imaging technology that range from spectral karyotyping to scanning electron microscopy, we see beauty in the delicate lacework of fungal hyphae invading a blood vessel, the structure of the normal cerebellum, and the desperate drive of metastasizing cancer cells. 

Ultimately, this series of images will leave the viewer with an understanding and appreciation of visual beauty inherent within the field of modern medical science. 

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website 


Whether or not you go, the companion publication, Hidden Beauty: Exploring the Aesthetics of Medical Science, presents these images of visually stunning patterns of different diseases affecting various areas of the human anatomy. The author is an Associate Professor of Pathology and Art as Applied to Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, specializing in photo-microscopy and macro photography. 

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  • Photography
  • Contemporary
  • Various artists

Exhibition Venues & Dates