I was delighted to be booked to photograph an evening of the q-bio conference in Santa Fe this weekend.
Held at St John’s College, but organized by the Center for Non-Linear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the event explores cellular information processing and ‘is intended to advance predictive modeling of cellular regulation’ — (no, I don’t really know what that is either, but everyone there obviously did).
The organizers wanted photographs of the biologists enjoying pizza and beer after the daytime sessions, then heading in to take part in the evening events.
These included a brilliant talk (complete with songs) by iconoclastic Israeli scientist Uri Alon, who gave a compelling account of the need to acknowledge the subjective and emotional side to life as a researcher.
You don’t expect a guitar in a science lecture, but Uri Alon’s not the average scientist
And then the attendees broke out into the poster sessions, where their fellow delegates put up posters outlining their projects and then discuss them long into the night.
The organizers used the images as part of a slideshow at the banquet held on the final evening of the conference, and will use them in print and online publicity for next year’s event.
One of the joys of being a photographer is being invited into a world you’d normally never venture into to. This is what drew me to print journalism — just for a little while, you get to explore what other people’s lives are like, and try to understand things enough to tell an interesting and accurate story about it. The same is true with photography.
Attendees talking through and debating their projects with other delegates in ‘poster sessions’
