my beautiful cervix

my beautiful cervix…one woman took pictures everyday of her cervix for an entire menstrual cycle.  she is a doula and student midwife.

Each photo was taken at approx 10:00 pm every day starting the first day of my menstrual cycle.  I re-used a plastic speculum (order one here) and macro function of normal digital camera (and a very talented boyfriend with a headlamp).  For the duration of this project, we used condoms as our birth control method so as not to introduce semenal fluid into the photoshoot.  I did not use tampons or mooncups during my bleeding time either.

these pictures are so informative.  i especially appreciate that she tracks how she feels during the month.  and her sexual life.

i am thinking about how funny the cervix is.  how intimate it is.  what captured me about these pictures.  they didnt feel clinical but pornographic in the sense that they should not be seen.  not be talked about.  and then i realized it had been a while since i had seen my own cervix.  not since i gave birth.  how has it changed?  shifted?

i told a friend that i was looking at pictures of the cervix and he asked if it was an art project or informational.  it was intended to be informational but my strong and contradictory emotional reaction, my inability to turn away, my feeling that something taboo had been broken and yet could not think of the taboo that was supposed to be in place, and the innumerous visual and experiencial associations ( like sweaty summer sex and bath towels and aza’s mouth when she was a newborn) that occurred as i looked at the list of photos tells me that it is also art.

the funny thing is that the photos are so clear.  can you imagine she and her partner angling the mag light just right and then angling the camera while she is holding the speculum?  i wish someone had taken a picture of that.  it sounds so joyful and awkward.