Translator: Ilze Garda Reviewer: Denise RQ
Let me start with a question.
Who of you has cried this past week?
Please, raise your hand.
And who of you has cried this past month? Or in the past half year?
Well, statistically, I should see more hands than this,
because according to research, women cry an average five times a month,
whereas men only cry once,
but yes, people, man do cry.
But now let me ask you this:
how many of you have actually shared their tears
or their stories with someone else?
My name is Maurice Mikkers,
and some of you may know me as the tear-catcher
because I capture the beauty of tears
by photographing them underneath a microscope.
Last year, I started a project Imaginarium of Tears:
an ongoing photography tear collection with personal stories at its heart.
It is because I believe that we should embrace our tears,
be they happy or unhappy ones,
because they are one of the true expressions of ourselves
and your connection to the world.
Tears are unique. They are beautiful. And they are art.
So, how in the world did I come up
with putting tears underneath the microscope?
The story began with dyslexia.
And as frustrating as it was at school,
funnily enough, dyslexia guided me to where I am today.
My dislike of words made me excel in the better subjects
such as physics, mathematics, and chemistry.
My free time I would spend behind the computer,
and I would literally spend all my money on new gadgets, instead of on dates;
which I actually still do.
So it didn't come as a major surprise
that I became a medical laboratory analyst.
While working at the lab,
I spent a lot of time looking through the microscope,
and to me - wow! - it was mesmerizing.
The things that were commonly seen as routine, science, or diagnostics
to me got a whole new dimension - art.
But since taking pictures or being creative
was not mentioned in my job description,
I decided to exchange my lab coat for a laptop and a camera.
I joined the Royal Art Academy in The Hague
and became a professional photographer.
Now, eight years later,
I'm standing here talking about my passion
of visualizing stories by using a microscope.
I call them Micrograph Stories.
I visualized the everyday things
we encounter and consume in our daily life.
For example, this is tartaric acid
It's a commonly used food additive.
It helps to make your cake rise.
And, no, this is not a computer in there or Photoshop,
this is what you would actually see when you look through the microscope.
And this is Diclofenac, a commonly used painkiller.
And this one - it is pretty, right?
It is MDMA, the active component of ecstasy.
Doesn't it almost make you want to start drugs?
(Laughter)
For me, these micrographs function as story starters,
since everything I visualize has a hidden story.
My ultimate goal is to create more awareness
around the subjects that I visualize.
But let's get back to tears.
People often ask me, "How do you create these images?"
"And why do the tears look like that?"
"And are all tears the same?"
Well, when I started this project, I really had no clue
what a tear would look like underneath the microscope.
But one day, I had to cry.
I bumped my toe against the table really hard,
and, man, I feel lucky that I don't have to give birth.
So while in pain,
I captured a tear rolling down my cheek with a pipette,
and I got to work.
At that moment,
I really had no clue what technique I should use underneath my microscope,
so I started with the bright-field technique.
It's a microscope technique that you commonly use in highschool.
Afterwards, I tried the polarization technique.
But it was only when I was stunned, when I got to the dark field illumination.
Look at how the tear shapes: it's like a little planet.
And those patterns and beautiful structures in patterns!
I was hooked, and I started to explore more tears underneath my microscope.
I felt like a planeteer.
So now that we know how to make a tear visible,
but it did not explain why it looked like that.
When we cry, we often see a drop of water, but it is so much more than that.
Did you know that there are three types of tears?
That the world's mono-tear is the emotional tear?
It reacts both to positive and negative emotions
like sadness, happiness, pleasure, or pain.
But getting a tear is not that easy.
Like most of us know, crying on command is very difficult,
so doing this project, I had to wait
until genuine moments presented themselves.
For example,
this is a tear that was donated by a friend of mine from sadness
because her dad is really sick
and there was nothing she could do about it.
Or the tear of complete frustration from my sister
because her boss does not allow her to work at her full potential.
Or the tear of goodbye from a young man
who had to leave back to his home country leaving all his friends behind.
Or what about the tear that I got from happiness
when I heard that I would be one of TEDxAmsterdam speakers of this year?
(Laughter)
We all have our own story to share,
and there are so many more stories.
What about the story of relief
when you finally hear your cancer is in remission?
Or the tear of happiness
when you finally figure out you're pregnant after years of trying?
Or what about the tears of sadness and frustration
because of the recent devastating terrorist attacks?
We all have our own story to share.
So, how come each tears turns out so differently?
Well, let's have a look underneath the microscope.
Over here you can see how the magic happens.
This crystallization process normally takes 5 to 30 minutes,
but it depends on different variables such as the humidity and the temperature,
but not to forget your unique physiology.
Over here, you can see how the crystals are slowly starting to get their shape
and grow until a full crystal.
Once it's fully grown, the tear is ready to be imaged.
We should share our tears because tears are stories,
and stories connect us on a deeper level.
I hereby invite you to donate your tear today.
You can find me downstairs at the lobby,
and I will visualize your tear underneath the microscope.
So this is your unique opportunity to turn your tear into art.
Because, just like ideas worth spreading, I believe in tears worth shedding.
(Laughter)
Thank you.
(Applause)