SPOTLIGHT: Felice Frankel

Felice Frankel does not consider herself an artist, though some people might confuse her for one. A Senior Research Fellow at Harvard’s Initiative in Innovative Computing (IIC), Frankel recently received the Lennart Nilsson award—and the $15,000 that comes with it—for her compelling scientific photography. The Crimson caught up with Frankel to hear about her experience as a cutting-edge photographer walking a thin line between science and art.

The larger issue dealt with here is trying to get researchers and students to understand the importance of visually experiencing science and engineering. This might seem obvious, but for some reason there is not enough of it on campus. I feel deeply that the world has to start engaging the public in research—my own agenda is to bring in the visual, which is a common language that goes beyond background and education.

Frankel sports a long list of grants and fellowships from groups such as the National Science Foundation and the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Upon seeing her work, this variety is understandable: She captures science in such an aesthetically moving way that it is difficult, if even possible, to distinguish her scientific photographs from works of art.

I feel that it is really important to clarify that I do not consider myself an artist. I bring in an aesthetic to science, that perhaps may make it look like art. I like to separate myself from the art world because [my work] is not about me, not about communicating me, but rather the science. Another issue that separates me from art is that it is important for me to describe the process of image making. If there is some sort of manipulation, then you have to be very careful to discuss that—it changes the data. But as long as we discuss it and its validity, it should be part of the process.

Having established her opinion that her work is not art, Frankel concedes that science photography nevertheless spawns from a concern of aesthetics.

The difference between me and a microscopist is that the microscopist generally works in one lab. I would never dream of comparing myself to a microscopist—I don’t have the expertise. I bring the photographer’s eye to the microscope...I am also a generalist. There is really no such profession. My dream is to create some sort of program on campus for people like me who have a background in science and also love the visual...to bring graphic photographers and designers in to the field.

Frankel stumbled upon her calling after having studied biology as well as landscape and architectural photography, while working at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) on one of the Loeb fellowships.

It was certainly not intentional on the part of the Loeb fellowship! They gave me the opportunity to play on campus. While my colleagues were playing at the GSD, I was playing at the Science Center. It became clear to me that I missed science very much. My very first experience, we got the cover of Science [Magazine]!

Displaying the unbridled enthusiasm of an emerging non-artist, Frankel is excited to talk of her past and present exhibits. Apart from an upcoming appearance on “Wired Science” on PBS, Frankel also exhibited 14 murals on the Champs Elysée in Paris.

I know, isn’t that crazy? I never got to see it. They never paid me, by the way. I am convinced that people worldwide are drawn to science with an unintimidating approach. I believe wonderful images are a method we are not using enough.

In the end, it boils down to how people think about the arts and the sciences as two diametrically opposed fields. Frankel is confident that the popularization of science through her arresting images is the tip of an iceberg.

You can go to a cocktail party and use an arcane line of poetry and impress everyone, but it’s okay to say, “Oh, I was never much of a science student.” I think it is an embarrassment that our society does not include science in our conversation and...it is up to the future leaders of the world—and I like to think a lot of them will come from Harvard—to understand more science. It’s unbelievably exciting and amazing and the whole world should love it, but for some reason it is frightened by it.

—Anna I. Polonyi