Organizing the cosmos: a look at nature

See Science: How Photography Reveals the Universe Marvin Heiferman Opening (2019)

Science is such a cornucopia that a visual book on its history could take thousands of pages. This is the prowess of curator Marvin Heiferman: See science In a nutshell, Heiferman takes us from ornithology, astronomy and genomics to ecology, chemistry and physics, to a vertiginous tour of disciplines through such goals as Felice Frankel, James Balog, Rosalind Franklin and David Doubilet.

Book of Heiferman 2012 Photography changes everything It's inspired by many years of conservative work on the online Smithsonian Photography Initiative. As part of this project, experts and an online audience submitted essays, stories and images from 2007 to 2010 to examine how photography shapes our culture and lives. See science builds Heiferman's skills. Here, there is no romanticism in the art of photography. On the contrary, his desire is to "contextualize the sciences by examining the cultural conditions that shape both the question and the representation".

The 70 thematic chapters (grouped under "Knowledge", "Culture" and "Imagination") reveal a range of approaches to formulating photographic projects. Some chapters present an analysis of five experts: photographers, historians, cultural theorists. These have been developed as online conversations with a virtual audience. They sometimes feel watched – often too broad and therefore less attractive. What works best are the chapters containing the photographers' own words, or the distorted biographies of Heiferman's image creators as well as descriptions of the science of the time. We recall here that we see science through the particular lens of this artist.

Heiferman approaches the question of ethics as it should be: photography is a powerful means that can change society and flows from it. As standards change, so does our sense of what is acceptable in an image. A daguerreotype included in the Heiferman's opening chapter, titled "Renty, Congo, of JT Zealy, on the plantation of BF Taylor, Columbia, South Carolina, 1850", is currently being made. the subject of a court challenge in Massachusetts, to determine whether the descendants of the human slave photo, known as Renty, or Harvard University, holds the rights to the image. In the future, photographic archives and publishers may need to renounce the doctrine of "historical significance" that they must lead with due attention to the descendants of those who have not consented to be photographed. . This could mean the total deletion of some images.

See science is also looking to the future, with chapters on virtual reality, facial recognition and other advanced technologies that can boost areas such as surveillance. I would have liked to see more medical images that advance treatments and diagnoses by exploiting technologies such as scanning electron microscopes, magnetic resonance imaging or vDISCO – which makes tissues transparent.

An expansive timeline is a bonus, from 1000 Before Christ with a piece of Assyrian rock crystal known as the Nimrud lens, the oldest known optical device. The photograph as we define it began with an image of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 or 1827.

The future of photography is limitless. Technologies are constantly being developed to increase manipulations, including retouching portraits and landscapes; artificial intelligence is able to make people completely. This will only reinforce our inability to distinguish what is authentic from what is manufactured. Falsification charges are already being used to destabilize trust. Visual manipulation, combined with the speed at which images roam the globe, could create chaos – or stimulate imagination.

Top: "The Pillars of Creation" by Aigle Nebula, NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team (2015).

The complex science that presided over the creation of this image of the Eagle Nebula in the constellation Serpens is impressive, but only this image dominates the imagination. In the absence of reference in the frame to show the scale or sense of place, it defies all that is familiar and earthly. As Max Mutchler, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, notes, this picture shows events that occurred 6,500 years ago. "Each of the small protuberances at the top of these pillars is equivalent to our solar system. ".

Known to many for her 1930s project, Changing New York, pioneering American photographer Berenice Abbott turned to science early. Twenty years later, in the late 1950s, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge asked him to photograph physical phenomena for this manual. Abbott wrote that "photography can be that spokesperson, as no other form of expression can be" to explain the world in which we live.

"Most people are breathless when they see the images for the first time," says environmentalist photographer Todd Forsgren; many viewers believe that birds are in danger. Still, Forsgren worked with birdwatchers, who use Japanese nets to capture, measure, and briefly band birds (such as this gnat) before releasing them safely.

James Ball's current project Guide to Computing (also known as Docubyte) captures historical computers in the most seemingly simplistic way. Presented alone, the machines become simply elegant. As the world consumes technology at a faster and faster pace, Ball's work seems both comforting and enigmatic.

The protective suits worn by emergency cleaning and bomb-neutralization units are evocative – as are the poses of brave individuals who "model" them. As Heiferman notes, these images speak of "potentially uncontrollable situations and portraits made with the calm of 18th century paintings".

Realizing that there were few scientific career opportunities for women in her native Japan, Kunié Sugiura had settled in the United States in the mid-1960s. There, she moved from the physical to photography. For this series of portraits of scientists, Sugiura asked each of his subjects to "take poses or appear with objects suggesting their interests and achievements," Heiferman writes. Biochemist and Nobel Laureate James Rothman works on structures inside cells called vesicles, which carry substances – and that do not look like bubbles.

Anna Atkins, botanist and photographic innovator of the Victorian era, produced the images of 1843 Photographs of British algae: cyanotype prints – the first photography book in the world – and two other volumes. His technique was to place specimens of plants such as this fern on light-sensitive blueprint paper. This has provided new support for specimen photography and opportunities for scientists to share their data collections – or not.

Finnish photographer Sanna Kannisto travels to the lush rainforests of South America and the Caribbean, where she lives among researchers while photographing specimens of native flora and fauna. Carefully staged, the images remind us of the importance of photography in "creating orderly views of changing ecosystems," Heiferman writes.

Movement-activated, strategically placed cameras allow scientists to capture images that might otherwise be elusive. Researchers can share the findings with local communities and international environmental advocates such as the Panthera non-profit group, which could help protect endangered species.

David Doubilet has been taking pictures under water since the age of 12. He has documented the seas of the world and breathtaking scenes that few people will experience. Its vast collection is often painful to watch, given the impact of overfishing and climate change on marine ecology. "I want to … make photos that make people concerned, who fall in love with the sea and protect the sea," he says.

James Balog launched the Extreme Ice Survey in 2007, bringing together scientists from a myriad of disciplines to record the changes that have occurred on Earth. The spectacular photos of the project raise public awareness and awareness of the threats to the cryosphere and the need for action.

American astronaut Scott Kelly, author of the preface to the book, has certainly seen science on a large scale. A veteran of four spaceflights, he also spent a year aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Kelly has fired on our planet a myriad of times from the space. This view of Houston, Texas, was taken from the ISS and, like many of his photographs, was "meant to capture a sense of wonder that I felt and the beauty I saw," writes he.

Amelia Hennighausen is the editor-in-chief of US media at Nature, and professor of photojournalism at Fordham University in New York.