Science, photographed by somebody who has been in the room.

The problem with most lab photography

Stock library science is two people in unnecessary goggles holding a blue liquid up to the light. Anybody who works in a lab can spot it in a second, and so can the graduate you are trying to recruit.

Real lab photography looks different because real work looks different. Somebody loading a plate reader with their back half turned. A tray of seedlings under grow lights. The scribbled label on a flask. It is less tidy and much more convincing.

Working around the protocol

An experiment does not pause for a photographer, and it should not have to. I plan with the lab manager, arrive when the interesting part is happening, and work around the bench rather than through it.

If a site needs an induction, a lab coat, safety glasses or an escort, that is normal and I build the time into the booking. I have never yet met a safety officer who objected to being asked first.

Portraits of scientists

Researchers are usually photographed badly: pinned against a wall in a corridor, holding a piece of equipment they never use. Given ten minutes and their actual bench, you get a portrait that says what they work on.

For a whole department, the efficient pattern is a day: environmental portraits of the group leaders in the morning, a matching headshot station in the afternoon, and reportage of the facility in between.