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Berenice Abbott: Monochrome purity in photography

25 July 2012

The photographer Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) is best known for her , but she went on to tackle the challenges of picturing scientific concepts. Her distinctive black-and-white images are now , where she did much of her science work in the late 1950s and early 1960s. An accompanying book, , has been published by Steidl.

Read more:Innovation made waves in physics photography

Wiring an early IBM computer. (Image: Steidl)

The light projects a circular shadow when placed directly above the glass sphere. Ellipses, parabolas and one branch of any hyperbola can be formed by moving the light. (Image: Steidl)

This grain of corn is developing into a new plant, the thick shoot growing up towards light, the nascent roots going in the opposite direction. (Image: Steidl)

The fields around each loop combine and strengthen one another. The coil has a magnetic pole at either end, and the field around the coil is very much like that around a bar magnet. (Image: Steidl)

Static electricity. (Image: Steidl)

Zinc etched with acid. (Image: Steidl)

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