Smoke and Mirrors

During an organic chemistry class, I was intrigued when the professor explained that mustard gas—a notorious wartime poison-could also be used to treat cancer. The idea that a poison could serve as medicine fascinated me. I enroll in a PhD program in pharmacology. Early in my training my focus was disrupted by an experience with the plant medicine peyote. I felt there was more to the psychedelic experience than simply the mescaline molecule in the plant and inspired me to traditional healing medicines. I finished my program and then moved into photography as a qualitative way to investigate traditional and shamanic practices. I traveled to Bolivia and Peru with cameras to photograph these practices. With time, I came to understand the shamanic worldview, there’s no separation of the secular from the spiritual. Plant medicines possess both therapeutic properties and spiritual dimensions that work together to restore balance to the body. This is enhanced by the culturally defined rituals, accoutrements and attire of the healer/shaman as well as the setting of the healing encounter. I took the name of this project Smoke and Mirrors from the monsignor of a church in Riveralta, Bolivia, describing a healer’s practice that I later witnessed – “I think it’s all smoke and mirrors, but she heals everyone that comes to her.”