The Topography of Tears

October 13, 2025 – March 30, 2026

It is such a secret place, the land of tears.
Antonie de Saint-Exupéry,_ The Little Prince_

Photographed through an optical standard light microscope, mounted with a digital microscopy camera, The Topography of Tears is a contemplative visual study of tears by artist Rose-Lynn Fisher. Beginning in 2008 during a period of immense grief, Fisher with an abundant supply of tears, became curious about the very nature of tears. What do tears actually look like? Would joy look like sorrow? A microscope provided the means to investigate, and beyond that, to visually evoke the unseen realm of the artist’s emotions.

Over a period of eight years, Fisher photographed a wide range of her own tears, along with some from others young and old. Tears were shed tears directly onto glass slides, either letting them evaporate or compressing a tear between the slide and a thinner glass coverslip. The results of each approach look different, yet equally interesting.

Rose-Lynn Fisher is a Los Angeles-based artist whose years of mixed media painting and assemblage fostered her path to photography and photomicrography. Her work explores interconnections along the micro-macro continuum, evoking sense of place, patterns of nature, or pure abstraction.

She is the author of two books of photomicrographs: Bee, ultra-close views of the honey bee through a scanning electron microscope, and The Topography of Tears. Her investigations also include looking into the micro realm of ocean, bone, and other biological materials. Her recent work reflects on dust, detritus, and cosmos.
Rose-Lynn was born in Minneapolis, grew up in Los Angeles and received her BFA from Otis College of Art and Design. For more information, visit www.rose-lynnfisher.com.

The Topography of Tears is presented by Project Art as part of the Artist- Art and Illness series.

Rose-Lynn Fisher, what couldn't be fixed, 2009, Photomicrograph, archival pigment print, 8.5 x 6.4