Faces of Science: Portraits [Hardcover]

Mariana Cook (Author), Gerard Piel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 2005

An intimate look at the people behind some of the great discoveries of our time.

Here a renowned photographer turns her camera on some of the greatest men and women of the scientific community. The seventy-seven extraordinary portraits included in Faces of Science make their subjects accessible to us and less formidable than they may have seemed in the past. Each image is paired with a short autobiographical essay explaining how the scientist became interested in his or her chosen field. The combination of word and image illuminates the individual character of each scientist, from Francis Crick and Richard Leakey to Miriam Rothschild and Mary Eubanks. It also reveals some of what they have in common: intellectual curiosity, a desire to help mankind, and an ability to work with others to accomplish their tasks. Faces of Science is both an inspiration and a confirmation of the human spirit. 85 duotone photographs

Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American

Cook, whose books of photographs include Fathers and Daughters and Couples, turns her camera on 77 scientists who have answered important questions about the nature of the physical world. Each remarkable image is paired with a brief autobiographical essay.

Editors of Scientific American

From The New Yorker

Scientists are supposed to be skull-beneath-the-skin types, peering into telescopes or microscopes in order to glimpse the eternal nature of things. In these black-and-white portraits of some eighty eminent researchers, a photographer tries peering back. The result is a fascinating study of the gaze, albeit from a reverse angle. There's the archeologist with the arched, combable eyebrows, the neutrino guy with the in-on-the-cosmic-joke grin, the evolutionary biologist whose age-etched face emerges from the shadows as a play of silvery crescents, the superstring theorist with a bad-cop glower, the neuron whiz who looks like a bartender you'd spill your troubles to. The subjects have all contributed personal statements, and when you put those together you get a history of postwar science that's as immediate and unprettified as these portraits.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton (September 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393061183
• ISBN-13: 978-0393061185
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 10.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,035,466 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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