Stefanie Reichelt:  The Art of Scientific Imaging

 

I am a Cambridge-based researcher and photographer. Since 2005, I have been the Head of the Light Microscopy Laboratory at the CRUK Cambridge Institute. My research includes the development of new imaging techniques, which will enable the visualisation of molecules in cells for cancer diagnostics. (www.lightmicroscopy.cruk.cam.ac.uk)

At the CRUK Cambridge institute, I founded ArtCell Gallery, which provides exhibition space on the Addenbrooke's Hospital site for local artists and the science community.

Scientists have always used images of various kinds – drawings, pictures, photographs and videos, to name a few – to make discoveries, describe processes in nature, achieve and catalogue specimens, and illustrate ideas and observations. In scientific discoveries, images are often the finding itself. In scientific discoveries, images are often the scientific finding itself.

 

For me, art and science are not disparate, but complementary ways of seeing the world. Both depend on the subtle observations of life and attempt to blend the real with the imaginary. As a scientist and a photographer, I aim to bring together both my capacity to observe and to imagine.