Christopher Anthony Velasco is a performance artist and photographer from Los Angeles who holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from UC Santa Barbara.

He is passionate about emphasizing the queer brown body as well as horror and camp aesthetics in his work.

Velasco created a performance art titled “Forbidden Photos of a Doctor Above Suspicion,” which represents stages of natural decomposition of anatomy into the two different stages-which are advanced decay and dry remains/bones.

Instead of an actual human body, polaroids with saturated and vibrant colors represent the processes.

In this exhibit, there are visible representational and nonrepresentational aspects, as Velasco displayed, that can be viewed on polaroids scattered throughout the scene.

In a similar manner that Herbert West from H.P Lovecraft experiments with the bodies of his victims, Velasco’s photographic creations are reanimated in this exhibit as the images of natural and chemical processes come to life.

Velasco has created an aesthetic experience in his exhibit, as the Polaroid films act as a body being experimented on in his own laboratory where he performed the speeding of natural and chemical processes.

There is an enormous amount of detail, passion and effort put into this exhibit representing the stages of the body once entering a phase where decomposition occurs.

Forbidden Photos of a Doctor Above Suspicion show a mixture of painting techniques and photographic techniques that really move the reader because they tie into a plot.

The sophisticated polaroids have a balanced amount of contrast and tint, which make them aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. The way that there is a clear representation of decay, such as carved holes into some polaroids, aligns with the way a human body decays.

To check out more from Velasco in addition to this window dressing, a set of his manipulated Polaroids can be seen in Cerritos College Art Gallery’s own Dr. Robert Summers Queer Art Permanent Collection.

There are over 100 Polaroids installed showing the multiple levels of decay. Velasco himself will be acting as a mad scientist and bring his fiendish experiments to life on Sept. 11 at 12 p.m.

It’s recommended to visit the window display if you have an interest in viewing art that has a carefully detailed plot-with specifically medical or scientific details attached to it.

Anyone with a profound interest in photography, art, anatomy and specifically Polaroids will find this to be a thrilling sight displayed on campus.