There are things in our environment, in the very environment of our bodies even, that are imperceptible yet always present. We usually think of the microbial world only on the level of threat assessment – worrying about germs, for example, or deciding to eradicate them completely with hand sanitizer. The human body carries an estimated 100 trillion bacteria, without which our food would not be digested and our health would suffer. These organisms exist in what scientists refer to as the microbiome, which is different for each one of us. We are worlds, existing in symbiosis with our unseen passengers.
I wanted to do a portrait of my constant companions, choosing as my subject the bacteria that live in my mouth.