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Images from Science: An Exhibition of Scientific Photography Organized by the School of Photographic
Arts and Sciences Reviewed by Amy Ione Andreas Vesalius' 1543 De Humani Corporis Fabrica, sketches found throughout Leonardo's notebooks, and Galileo's watercolors depicting the geography of the moon as he perceived it through his telescope, are among the frequently cited examples that demonstrate art and science working in tandem. While these projects primarily aided knowledge acquisition, there are also compelling examples that remind us of how fragile the line between aesthetics and scientific visualization is. The internationally recognized RIT School of Photographic Arts and Sciences catalogue for Images of Science: An Exhibition of Scientific Photography, a 2002-juried exhibition, offers a collection of photographs that fit within this category. The book features fifty-eight images selected from the more than 290 pictures submitted for consideration by eighty photographers from 14 countries. Juried by a panel of photographic experts from esteemed institutions such as National Geographic, Life, American Photo, George Eastman House, RIT and the Lennart Nilsson Foundation, the pictures illustrate that scientific imagery is often aesthetically pleasing, artistically contrived, and visually stimulating. This exhibition, moreover, does not only provide a feast for the eyes. It also shows that visual information is used to convey ideas in fields that range from astronomy, physics, engineering, medicine, and microbiology. In addition, the full-color reproductions of the catalogue are further enhanced by the brief introduction written by David Malin of the Anglo-Australian Observatory. Although concise, he does adequately convey the degree to which picture making has aided scientific visualization historically. Malin also reminds us of earlier technological overlaps between art and photography. Indeed, as he explains, this exhibition is very much a part of the photographic trajectory that dates back to Sir John Herschel's impulse to replace his sketched studies of all he viewed through the telescope with photographs. It is intriguing to think that photography of the sky remained elusive until a decade after Herschel's death in 1871 and today, as Malin points out, a modern solid-state CCD camera attached to Herschel's telescope could record in seconds detail he was unable to capture in weeks of patient observation. Although the images overall are captivating, I was perplexed by many in fields unfamiliar to me. So little information was provided about the images scientifically that I, as a lay viewer, concluded not enough supplementary was included since the text only rarely suggested how a scientist might use the image to probe a problem in the lab. Knowing how superficially most non-scientists view scientific images, I was uneasy about the lack of expansive material, particularly when I recognized that the limited catalog descriptions often challenged my initial reactions to the representations. For example, when I looked at Dee Breger's Microplankton, 2001, which is a shell detail of a single-celled marine animal called a radiolarian, it seemed to me to have a visual quality of vast space. Jhodie Duncan used the title Can't See the Forest for the Trees, 2000 to play off the way her digital photomicrograph, which actually depicts Purkinje cells, suggests a nineteenth-century calotype of trees. The book relates that Purkinje cells are neurons of the cerebellum that communicate electrical impulses through structures known as dendritic tress. When viewing Larimer's depiction we see the multitudes of the branching cells in this tissue section that create our visual sense of a virtual forest while the smaller, darker-stained supportive neurons also add a visual dimension of depth and an eerie feeling to the image. Yet, surely, the scientist sees specific information here that is used to weigh what is known about the brain with hypotheses. In summary, as I compared my lay person's aesthetic reactions to these quite wonderful photographs with the descriptions, I was reminded of why the power of visual information has been both celebrated and denigrated historically. Without question, most of the images were striking, compelling and aesthetically exciting. Yet the emphasis on qualities that tease the eyes seemed to represent art in terms of visual stimulation or, perhaps, self-expression. The scientists who constructed these images didn't use them primarily for their aesthetic appeal and the descriptions provided did little to convey their scientific value. I wish the brief paragraphs had included some sense of how a scientist might use the image as a part of his or her visualization process. [A notable exception is Seeing Through Straws, 2001 by Susanne K. Williams and Adrian Dyer.] For those who believe beauty should be celebrated on its own terms, this book will be a winner. Those who aspire for art and science collaborations to exist on equal terms are apt to conclude that the catalog missed an excellent opportunity to broaden the lay experience of scientific research. This is not to say that the catalog cannot be used as a stepping-stone. For example, one of my favorite images visually was Roy Larimer's Clearly a Fish, 2001, a photomacrograph made with a digital SLR camera system. Looking at the chromatic skeletal outline of a shape in red with tinges of blue that gives the aesthetic an electric spot coloring, I wondered if it is a deep-water fish. The description explains that the Cichlid fish measured 4 cm from nose to tail. The specimen was clarified and stained before submersion in a clear vessel filled with alcohol. It was then illuminated from three directions. Additional transmitted light eliminated shadows in the photographic setup. Since no other information was provided I turned to the Encyclopædia Britannica article and discovered that the term Cichlid is applied to any of more than 600 species of fishes of the family Cichlidae (order Perciformes), many of which are popular aquarium fishes. Cichlids are primarily freshwater fishes and are found in tropical America, Africa and Madagascar, and southern Asia. The majority of species are African, appearing in great diversity in the major African lakes, etc. One might say that, to its credit, the catalogue encouraged me to seek out this information. Yet, it is (unfortunately) not possible for me to research every image. Still, the catalog does offer a collection of beautiful work and does inform the reader of the technical processes used. The captions are informative enough to allow a fascinated viewer to seek out more information. In addition, the web site at http://images.rit.edu/ makes it possible for all to see this series of marvelous works, and might be used in conjunction with teaching or as fodder for an inquisitive mind. Finally, it is worth mentioning that this show marks the one-hundredth year of photographic education at the internationally recognized RIT School of Photographic Arts and Sciences. This school offers a rich and diverse environment in which to develop the technical and creative possibilities afforded by the study of photography, science, and aesthetics. As the state-of-the art collection in Images of Science underscores, photography has certainly changed in the last 100 years!
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