Abstract
"How do I get my images on the cover of Science?" If this question has ever crossed your mind, you'll want to know more about Felice Frankel, MIT's artist in residence and coauthor with chemist George Whitesides of On the Surface of Things: Images of the Extraordinary in Science (Chronicle Books, 1997). She has three journal covers to her credit, and one is in the works. As a photographer who collaborates with scientists, she is an articulate speaker for the power of visual thinking and visual communication, and for their impact on scientific research.
A Scientist at Heart
Although widely recognized for her exquisite photographs, Frankel identifies with the scientific community rather than with the art world. With an undergraduate degree in biology, she worked as a research assistant in molecular biology at the Cancer Research Institute (New York City). She left the post a few years later to raise a family. "I'm from the generation of women who stopped working when they had kids," notes Frankel.
Away from the lab, she discovered her other great passion: photography. Her hobby grew into a 20-year career. One high point was the publication of her photos in Modern Landscape Architecture: Redefining the Garden (Abbeville Press, 1991). This acclaimed work led to her nomination for a Loeb fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, a situation where, as Frankel puts it, "they pay you to do anything you want to do." Most awardees eagerly enroll in design courses. But twenty years after leaving the world of biology, Frankel was hungry for science. "I lived at the Science Center," she says, "because that's what my love is." At the Science Center she attended lectures by E.O. Wilson and Stephen Jay Gould, among others. But it was a lecture given by George Whitesides that inspired Frankel's pioneering efforts in the field of professional scientific photography.
Finding a Niche
Shortly after her arrival in the lab, Whitesides introduced her to a postdoc who was submitting a manuscript to Science. "Their pictures were, let's just say, not on the level I knew they could be." Frankel took one of their pictures and improved on it. Visual clarity made the image more informative, injecting it with a greater depth of content. The picture made the cover of Science on September 4, 1992. "Not only was it a lovely ego boost, but I knew that this was it; this was where I belonged. It was my way of getting back into science, bringing in my own talents."
And so Frankel found her niche, combining the worlds of science and photography. "A lot of this was luck," she insists, noting that Whitesides' highly respected position within the scientific community facilitated her rapid acceptance by other scientists. The scientists in his lab were particularly open her new ideas and were willing to try them. Before long, scientists began to approach her for help; they were eager for her sort of visual analysis and support. Frankel's work also came to the attention of J. Kim Vandiver, director of the Edgerton Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Vandiver created an artist in residence post for her through the MIT Office of the Arts, providing a home base for her operations.
Frankel is now deluged with requests from scientists all over the country to help them communicate their work. "I saw that there was a void in the laboratories for this kind of work . . . and there really is," Frankel stresses. At a recent talk she gave at the California Institute of Technology, for example, several researchers approached her, anxious to show her their work and to have her critique it.
"I think what I am doing is showing the researchers new standards that they hadn't considered before, so they will become more demanding. . . . Whitesides actually said this to me: I have affected the way they look at their work," Frankel says. "Now they look at their work and they know what is possible."
Current Projects
Frankel is now engaged in a National Science Foundation project called Envisioning Science and Engineering, where she and colleagues will set standards and methodologies for imaging. The project will, in part, incorporate a visual vocabulary of science into curricula, and develop a guidebook for students and researchers.
She describes the guide as a cookbook on how to acquire scientific images, including techniques for both microscopic and macroscopic photography. Neither a technical manual on microscopy nor a physical description of optical systems, it will be a practical guide on how best to capture scientific images, how to select the appropriate form of microscopy to answer experimental questions, and how to avoid common mistakes and artifacts.
The handbook will also discuss the important, but often minimally addressed, issue of where to draw the line in the manipulation of images for scientific publication. In the age of Photoshop and PowerPoint, most scientists face this problem without clear guidelines. Frankel believes that it is important to consider each case independently, cautiously, and conservatively. "There is no such thing as a purely objective image. In the framing itself, what you decide is your frame, you're manipulating." The best way to be accurate and avoid problems, she advises, is to always include a clear description on the preparation of all images. Frankel foresees the course and handbook becoming a general resource for all labs that rely on imaging as a tool for data acquisition.
Other publications are planned. The June 12 issue of Science, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, features an essay (free registration required) by Frankel on the value of her work as a scientific tool. Other invited authors include Stephen Jay Gould, Al Gore, and Bill Gates. Frankel has also begun collecting images for Errata, another book of intriguing photos. Errata will expose the rich beauty and potential ideas that underlie many of the "mistakes" generated during scientific research.
Tips for Scientists
Readers of science publications typically look at the figure before, or sometimes even instead of, reading the text, notes Frankel. Optimum image quality, then, should be a priority for both authors and publishers.
Frankel points out several common mistakes that scientists commit when acquiring and preparing images. Many scientists attempt to pack too much information into their images, usually to establish that the experiments were done thoroughly and according to accepted standards. The result can be a dense and confusing mass of information. Frankel advises creating simple images whenever possible, where a single main point is clearly made. Where several points must be covered, aim for a "hierarchy of information" directing the reader's eye to the most important aspects of an image first and to the subtle details later.
Scientific papers often attract readers outside the author's special field of research. These readers will require some degree of guidance to the most pertinent aspects of an image. Frankel cautions scientists not to assume too much prior knowledge. Intelligent use of cropping, composition, and color can help.
Unfortunately, many scientific journals do not support high-quality image reproduction. Figures are frequently restricted in number and size, and investigators must pay additional charges to use color. Frankel feels strongly that "it is the journal's responsibility to pay for color reproduction if the color contributes to interpretation of the data."
Future Plans
"It's fun, I'm having a wonderful time. I just would like there to be more people like me," Frankel says. "I'm trying to clone myself." As a distinguished visiting Luce Fellow at Skidmore College this fall, Frankel may have the chance to begin exploring this possibility. She will be introducing young liberal arts students to the ideas and techniques of science communication through images.
When Frankel first started, she hoped to teach her skills to the scientists themselves so that they would be able to do their own high-quality imaging. But she soon realized that scientists frequently lack both the time and the inclination to do so. Now she believes it would be ideal to have a science communication center in every research institution, where people like herself could assist scientists in the production of high-quality images, and where science writers could assist with the production of text.
She stressed the importance of employing people with a general scientific background in addition to specialized imaging or writing skills. Frankel is adamant about the need to understand the research that underlies a scientific image in order to be able to contribute to its presentation. She also feels that such centers can could connect researchers from different fields who may otherwise never meet, and who may benefit from each other's expertise in unexpected ways.
Finding Support
In spite of high-profile posts such as Frankel's, acquiring funding for scientific imaging is a chronic problem because the work is difficult to categorize. Frankel has been the recipient of National Endowment for the Arts grants and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship; a grant from the Camille and Henry Dreyfuss Foundation helped purchase microscopes. She sees the need for a more integral position within the university. "People don't know how to pay me," she says. There are currently no monies explicitly set aside for this type of work. But Frankel is optimistic. She hopes that as her profession evolves and the scientific community becomes more aware of the value of her work, obtaining funds will become easier and more standardized.
Does she worry about her important work being viewed as merely a sales or public relations tool for researchers? "I don't care. I am a salesperson," Frankel says. "I'm selling science. . . . When you love something you want the whole world to want it."
Marina Chicurel is a postdoctoral fellow at Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston, and at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.
Sally Kuzma is past art editor for HMS Beagle.
The above image is of patterns of Proteus (bacteria) colonies (5 cm) on agar whose organization might be related to the depletion of nutrients. Research from the laboratory of J. Shapiro (University of Chicago). © Felice Frankel.
Endlinks
Home Page of Felice Frankel - includes links to journal covers on which she has worked.
On the Surface of Things - online exhibition of some of Frankel's work. Upcoming venues include:
Edgerton Center - MIT's center's Web site features the classic high-speed strobe photography of Harold E. Edgerton's. The center focuses on educational outreach to middle grade students.
On the Surface of Things - available for direct purchase from Chronicle Books. Includes an excerpt from the book.
Web sites mentioned in this column: