In “The Eyes Have It,” photographer Karl Smith is buried up to his eyes literally in diabetic pen needles. The photo is one of 18 in a new exhibition, Punctuation: 35 Years of Diabetic Debris on display at the McLean County Arts Center. Courtesy / Karl Smith
In “Punctuation: 35 Years of Diabetic Debris,” on display now through June 4 at the McLean County Arts Center, photographer Karl Smith documents life as a Type I diabetic, from diagnosis at age 15 to organ transplant at age 50.
Smith took the first photo the series in 1990 as a photography student at Illinois Wesleyan University.
“I’ve got all these syringe caps lined up in rows after rows after rows,” Smith described. “I was thinking it would have that pattern similar to the headstones at Arlington National Cemetery. I was using a particular type of camera that I was experimenting with where it would get this extreme depth of field.”