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Time-lapse Photography of Nail Growth

Medical film or lost avant-garde body horror classic? You decide!

Documentary 1960 2 mins Silent

Overview

Made at what is now Imperial College School of Medicine, this film was intended to document the effects of Glaxo’s Griseofulvin drug on a ringworm-infected thumbnail (although to the untrained eye it looks distinctly like a toe!) over a period of six months. Out of context, the gruesome close-up and mesmerising time-lapse photography evoke an art installation or avant-garde 'body horror' film.