Interview with a science photographer

by David Bradley

David Bradley Science Writer interviews Dana Lipp, Scientific Photographer, Dana Lipp Imaging, born: November 1953, Dedham, MA

Interview by David Bradley<p> Dana Lipp received his BS in Chemistry at Bridgewater State College in 1975 and ultimately went on to do an MS in Food Science at the University of Massachusetts 1995. He worked at Morton-Thiokol, Ventron Division, Danvers, MA from 1977 to 1987 as Senior Chemist and then at Polyonics in Newbury, MA from 1987 to 1988. He moved to Ocean Spray in Lakeville, MA as Principal Scientist where he spent the years 1988 to 1999 and was a Scientific Consultant, in Braintree, MA 1999-2000. He was then Customer Education Lab Manager at Waters Corporation, in Milford, MA, from 2000 to 2002. He is a Visiting Chemistry Lecturer at Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater. He is now taking his scientific understanding and combining it with his photographic passion to create scientifically accurate illustrations.

What are your main day-to-day activities? As with any business, marketing is essential to getting assignments. Much of my time is spent sending out promotional materials, exploring new leads, following up with potential clients, presenting my portfolio and demonstrating the advantages of "insightful scientific images". This is the by-line and goal of Dana Lipp Imaging. I'm also always on the lookout for local scientific meetings as an opportunity to network and become better known. I also spend a little time each day reading and perusing publications to get a feel for who is using images, how they are being used and their strengths and weaknesses. Some of this goes into a clip file that I keep with notations on the image as reminders.
 I've listed this as a separate activity, since it's a large part of my business. There's certainly some education involved; within the business, most photographers and art directors are rather limited in their understanding and comprehension of science, as demonstrated in the use of coloured water, dry ice and gels to enhance their photos and create visual interest. This science-gap is especially unfortunate when the images are intended for scientists, who readily recognize a bogus image. It's my job to educate them through personal communication, articles and workshops. Obviously, photography is a main activity, but not always as large as one might think in respect to all the other activities. It's typical for a business to have 50-75% billable hours and scientific photography is no exception.

Describe a normal day. There's really no such thing as a normal day due to the variety of tasks and the element of unpredictability with respect to incoming business. But as I mentioned, marketing is the one task that takes up much of my time. This includes visiting clients, reviewing my portfolio, and educating them about the advantages of engaging images with scientific depth, created by a photographer who understands science. Most photographers or art directors really don't know the science behind their very subjects well; this limits their creative vision. I'm also working on educational tools (articles and workshops) to help increase the awareness. My photographic assignments range from table-top shooting of small objects, to laboratory environments, manufacturing processes, instrumentation and people. I might have to shoot objects in the studio, or go out to visit a client to work directly at their site. Sometimes the assignments are broad, allowing me to use both my scientific and artistic eye, other times they are narrower, challenging me to work within their constraints.
  I also occasionally commit a small portion to researching new subjects, trying out new ideas, and expanding my portfolio some of which may find its way into stock.

Dana Lipp Scientific PhotographWhat do you enjoy about your work? I'm excited by the challenge of taking a subject, concept or scientific principle and creating a powerful image within the constraints of budgets, time and other resources. I enjoy the process of seeing that photography engenders; creating an image that is visually simple and engaging with scientific depth and accuracy. "Tonic On The Rocks", while somewhat whimsical, is visually striking and simple, yet to the careful observer illustrates the principle of fluorescence and sunscreens.
  I also enjoy the many hats I have to wear; customer relations, marketing, advertising, photography, competitive research, trainer/instructor, director... there's certainly no shortage of variety!

What advice would you give a younger scientist hoping to reach your position? Learn as much as you can about your scientific discipline first. Learn how to evaluate, think and work scientifically, how to form a hypothesis, design an experiment to test it, to critically and objectively evaluate the results. These skills are useful everywhere and not just in science! This is the fundamental basis for problem solving, in which I've obtained my analytical expertise and am now applying to photography. I still find myself asking the questions, what works? What doesn't? Why doesn't it? What can I do better? Is this like anything else I already know? The scientist learns how to measure and observe; so must the photographer. There are a lot of skills common to both disciplines. Experiment, and allow yourself to make mistakes; plenty of them. Learn the rules then break them; this is how breakthroughs happen. Experience is the best teacher. Work in industry; get some real world experience. Learn to combine creativity with being analytical; both are essential to making successful images. And the most important advice of all? Have fun in whatever you do and let your heart guide you.

What do you hope to achieve in your career? My hope is to create awareness for the beauty and wonder that exists in our everyday lives; to educate people about the knowledge that science provides. I don't mean to sound lofty, but I want to create images that accurately depict the subject for an audience that appreciates and understands. When you look closely, really closely with new eyes, everything is beautiful. Photography taught me to see. It is almost Zen-like; check out "The Tao of Photography".

Do you think your scientific career would have benefited from a PhD? A PhD is certainly not necessary in this career, although this is largely an individual question outside the context of scientific photography. However, since many scientists document their work with photography, they should take instruction in photography. It is unfortunate that while their research is very good, their images do not attain the same high standard. Just think of the potential impact in presentations and publications if the images were stunning and scientifically accurate! I'd suspect that research proposals containing these images would have a higher rate of acceptance too.

The idea of moving into scientific photography sounds fascinating, what was the inspiration for that and why now? Good question. For many years I was turned off by advertising that used implausible glassware setups filled with coloured water and dry ice fog. I found them off-putting and quite honestly, insulting. I even saw one used on the cover of a trade magazine and wrote to the editor. In my opinion, photos of this sort disengage the reader/viewer and devalue the products they represent, particularly to the scientists that view them. It concerned me that the images were not used to their fullest potential; those largely responsible understand only the visual and have little understanding for the science they are supposed to represent. So we end up with photographic clichés; the scientist holding a test tube up to the light in the eternal quest for truth and understanding. This was the cover photo for the chemistry set I had in the 1960s. Today, we should expect better!

What is your proudest scientific achievement? I've had many challenges as a problem solving analytical chemist in resolving off-colours, odours, product development problems, foreign materials, performance problems, insurance claims, and product safety in industries ranging from chemicals, plastics, biocides, additives, fermentation, polymer synthesis, electronic chemicals, foods and instrumentation. But I am most proud of my President's Technical Achievement Award for shelf-life and kinetic modelling of aspartame sweetened juices given by Ocean Spray Cranberries during my ten-year tenure there as principal scientist. In my career, my contributions have been valued at many millions of dollars in product improvement, quality, enhanced sales, safety and litigation.

How do you think others perceive the quality of your research and now your photography? My scientific work has been recognized for thoroughness, attention to detail, resourcefulness and creativity in solving problems and most importantly, as one colleague said "a practical business sensibility". Others have said, "strong technical ability", "communication skills", "tenacious in solving the tough problems", "flexible", "adaptable", "one of the best developmental and investigative analytical chemists with whom I've been associated".
  Certainly all of these attributes are important to photography and most especially scientific photography. Attention to detail is paramount as is creativity; many people think science and creativity are diametrically opposed. They are both very much about seeing patterns and the connections between things and finding out what they are. And creativity in scientific photography is not about creating what doesn't exist, but is more about in looking at it in a different way. Doesn't "Tonic On The Rocks" do that?

What makes your research so important to you? Science to me has always been about a search for truth as best as we can come to know it. And so is scientific photography, but as Felice Frankel at MIT said, "The photograph is not the thing, it is only a representation of it." This is true whether we are talking about print film, slide film, X-ray film or digital and is not in the least a philosophical point. But, we try in our search to come to know our world better and each time, I think, each generation gets a little bit closer. The only other trend that concerns me is that with each generation we are drifting further away from knowing ourselves better as a species, our limitations and our place on this Earth. But this is a comment for another time and place.

What makes photography so important to you? This is a very easy question, perhaps one I've addressed before. We are saturated with images, inundated with images, the doubling rate of information has been going up exponentially, especially with the advent of the web. But the important thing to remember is not just the images or information, but it's quality or in this case, the lack of quality. It's become like fast food, with little depth or substance; lots of noise but little signal! Lots of coloured lights, gels and dry ice...
  As a scientific photographer I bring technical depth into images, to attract the attention of the scientific reader to cause them to pause, to linger longer, and to wonder as they do naturally and by training, to observe. To think. It takes exceptional images to sell exceptional products, whether it's instrumentation, chemicals or even research. Like it or not, all sales depends on marketing and insightful scientific images can make the difference. It's all about quality, depth and understanding of my scientific subjects; few photographers can offer that.

What are the most pressing scientific issues chemistry should address? Effective communication is vital between the scientific community and the public; the American Chemical Society and Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies, for instance, have come to recognize its importance. The general public needs to better understand the scientific issues that affect their lives and make decisions regarding them; the lawmakers and politicians need to be fairly informed. Everyone's involved in this process, like it or not. The environment is our most pressing issue facing the industry today, ranging from pollution to global warming. We can only forestall and ignore this at our own peril.
  Insightful scientific images can help people understand, can communicate in ways that transcend words. I would use the recent movie "Winged Migration" as a exquisite example of its power. The literal bird's eye perspective of this film deepened my awareness of these beautiful creatures, their intelligence and challenges, both natural and man-made. The same can be done for science, by bringing the viewer into its world and relating these images to their everyday life. Making this link is critical to success. I've discussed shooting food chemistry with cookery magazines; you can't get any closer than that, and it's just one example!

Dana Lipp PhotographAre there any other concerns that you wish to highlight? There's a general concern about shooting digital and potential for manipulation, of taking the object even one step further from its original representation. Of misrepresentation. There ought to be some awareness that this has always been a concern; the image has never been the thing itself; films have different sensitivities, there are filters, darkroom techniques. To be sure, the capacity for misrepresentation is greater, but the photographic process is about documentation what has been done and reporting them when the photos are used.
  Certainly, the microscopic world has been literally expanded by the use of confocal, structured imaging and now Deep Field imaging, as pioneered by Zeiss. All of these techniques rely on image processing.

What do you consider as another exciting area of chemistry today? MEMS (micro electro mechanical systems) is a very exciting, interesting and growing field promising the miniaturization of many technologies that find application in a wide variety of fields and disciplines. I have been working with microCHIPS on an implantable drug delivery device that will provide one year's worth of medication without the plasma spikes normally seen with oral administration. It would seem the potential for MEMS devices are as broad as the imagination. Like scientific photography!

Original Images courtesy of Science Photographer Dana Lipp