Photography News issue 26

16 Interview

Photography News Issue 26 absolutephoto.com

Pro focus Science lessons In this exclusive extract from Professional Photo magazine, find out why a trip to Bradford’s National Media Museum will help you brush up your science and history knowledge We don’t often think of science and photography together, but maybe we should. Trace photography back to its earliest roots and you find scientists like Henri Becquerel creating photographs of radioactivity and inventors like William Henry Fox Talbot working with solar microscopes. The pioneers of early photography were scientists, and it’s the connection between them and today’s art photographers that Revelations: Experiments in Photography demonstrates. The exhibition at the National Media Museum grew out of a three-year dialogue between Dr Ben Burbridge, from the University of Sussex and GregHobson, theMuseum’s curator of photography. Their shared interest in the relationship between contemporary art and early scientific photography underpins this fascinating display. Ben explains that the premise behind the exhibition was specific: “To show the capacity of photography to go beyond the naked eye, to lend visibility to phenomena that would ordinarily remain invisible.” Take for example Andrew Ainslie Common’s Orion Nebula image. Before such images were captured we didn’t knowwhat space looked like. “It demonstrates beautifully howwenegotiate and thinkaboutwhatweknowabout theworld through its photographic representation,” says Greg. “When we think about what the universe looks like we think about what we see in images. Photography gives something an appearance.” And such images are still being captured; in the exhibition, Trevor Paglen’s 2010 shot of a distant military drone follows on from Ainslie Common’s Orion image from 1883. This “making the invisible visible” weaves through all the images in the show, like Ori Gersht’s modern explosions, which slow down time to capture motion, just as Eadweard Muybridge and Harold Edgerton did in the 1880s and 1950s respectively. Given the wonderful archive of early photography at the Museum, this could have simply been a display of fascinating early science images, but Ben and Greg wanted to “make a unique contribution”. The contrasts and comparisons between the historical and contemporary images offer insights into photography and our perception of it. Many of the older images are fromtheMuseum’s own archive, but the contemporary shots had tobe sourced, some fromprivate collections. Deciding what to include was no mean feat. Ben explains that “among our criteria for selecting the contemporary work were its links with early science – we wanted them to be

©CarlStrüweArchive,Bielefeld,GermanyVGBild-Kunst

Many of the older images are from the Museum’s own archive

saying something specific – and its connections with the early scientific photography.” They were also at pains to ensure that the hanging was structured and thought out. “When we started out there wasn’t such a clear chronology, we were mixing contemporary with historical, but that was felt to be a bit too obvious,” says Greg. “Which is why we started to look at a chronology.” “It’s a more meaningful way to tell a historical story,” says Ben. “Cultural and social change come through with this hanging.” For example, the first X-rays in the 19th century were groundbreaking, now they’re commonplace. Our reactions to photography now are different from those of our predecessors, and photographers aren’t scientists, but the medium still offers sight of things the eye can’t see. Which is why a trip to Bradford should be in your sights. Revelations: Experiments in Photography is at the National Media Museum, Bradford, from 20 November 2015 until 3 February 2016. nationalmediamuseum.org.uk Above X-ray of Angelfish and Surgeon fish, 1896 by Eduard Valenta and Josef Maria Eder. Above right Proboscis of the Hummingbird Hawk Moth, 1928 by Carl Strüwe. Belowright Blow Up, Untitled 1, 2007 by Ori Gersht

You’ll findmore insight in the latest Professional Photo – the onlymag dedicated to full-time and aspiring pro photographers