September 2, 2002 – February 14. 2003 Fritz Goro On the Nature of Things: The Scientific Photography of Fritz Goro

“The science photographer must make the truth so attractive that people will look and learn at once…science photography is the point where the reportorial and the esthetic merge.” – Fritz Goro

Human Heart Circulation Goro Studio, New York, 1948

Integrated Computer Chip Texas Instruments, 1977

Golgi-Stained Neuron and a Microelectrode Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 1979

Once described by Stephen Jay Gould as "the most influential photographer that science journalism (and science in general) has ever known" this exhibition presents 60 of this groundbreaking photographer's works, documenting some of the 20th century's most notable scientific achievements.

Forced to leave his native Germany, Goro arrived in the United States in 1936, and joined the staff of Life Magazine as science photographer in 1945. He soon developed his reputation as a perfectionist, spending months working on a single photograph intended to make science intelligible to the lay person.

Spark Discharge of Van de Graaff Accelerator Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1937

Radiotelescope and Rotating Sky Sydney, Australia, 1951

Fiber Optics on Skull Bell Labs, New Jersey, 1969

Some of the "firsts" for which Goro was known include making still pictures of blood circulation in living animals, photographing the first minute quantities of plutonium ever produced, photographing Enrico Fermi at Columbia University and recording the first fission of uranium ever achieved in the U.S. His photographs reflect major break-throughs in science of mid-20th century, encompassing physics, chemistry, laser technology, fiber optics, radio astronomy and computer sciences.

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Purchase the book On the Nature of Things; The Scientific Photography of Fritz Goro