Daniel Stier makes a living as a commercial photographer, but for the past seven years, he's had an interesting side project: photographing scientists in their labs. The photos are intriguing, inspiring, and...a little bit odd. Now, Stier has collected them into a new book, Ways of Knowing.
"The whole thing is meant as an art project," Stier told Refinery29. In fact, he sees a lot of parallels between the art world and that of research science.
"You can’t stop doing research the same way artists can’t stop making art," he says. "It’s a kind of work that is — compared to what other people do all day — strange, in a way. You never know if it makes sense; the outcome is always open. It’s a constant loop of doing something and maybe failing."
The book is broken up into two halves: in one, it's photographs of actual scientists in their laboratories. The other half features staged experimental setups Stier created in his photography studio. Both sets are presented without comment, however, there are essays written by Pedro Ferreira, professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and Daniel Jewesbury, a writer, artist and lecturer at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin.
"I feel that we’re overexplaining too much everywhere," Stier explains. "We can never look at a photograph just as a photograph. To me, a photograph is also a piece of art. You can create your own stories when you see it."
Want to give it a try? Here are 10 of Stier's bizarre yet wonderful Ways of Knowing images.
"You’re a bit confused when you see it; you don’t know what the hell is going on," Stier says of some of these images. He wanted to recreate that feeling, and also capture the curiosity and magic you feel when you first taste scientific experimentation growing up.
Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Stier.
Stier's book is divided into two sections. The first are the real science labs that he photographed around the world in universities. The other side is his take on the scientific process, photographed in his own studio.
Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Stier.
"It’s not some kind of scientific reportage," he says. "They are photos of real scientific research labs, but the whole thing is meant as an art project."
Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Stier.
"All the photos [always have] one person in the middle in some kind of contraption," Stier explains.
Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Stier.
"The laboratory and the artist studio are artificial environments," he says of the interesting overlap between two seemingly disparate worlds. "You lock yourselves in and use the things that are interesting for your work."
Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Stier.
For the studio images, Stier drew some inspiration from an old French publication from Victorian Times, which outlined science projects that could be done at home. "It’s about the idea of making an experiment, of building something," he explains.
Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Stier.
"I’m fascinated with anything scientific although I have no idea, no training, no knowledge," Stier says.
Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Stier.
"I like the look of the human body being quite fragile in these machines," he says. "It’s often being compared to torture chambers or strange film sets."
Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Stier.
Stier believes there's a huge misconception about what lab life is really like: "All the labs are stainless steel, blue and purple lights, men in white lab coats... The reality couldn’t be more different."
Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Stier.
"The artistic and the scientific work follow the same obsessions and motivations," Stier says. "I’m creating beautiful images. But [scientists] are also after beauty: beautiful equations, elegant solutions."
Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Stier.
"Since you’re shooting in completely artificial environments, there aren’t real colors," he says. "It’s not the color scheme we’re used to in landscapes."
Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Stier.
"This is what the scientists build," Stier explains. "They couldn’t care less about design or art, it’s 100% about function, and that’s very attractive, too. They’re like sculptures, but not as we know them."
Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Stier.Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
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