Glory in a Petri Dish
The Photography of David Liittschwager’s One Cubic Foot Underneath the Golden Gate Bridge
by Ernst Schneidereit
We believe art has a transformative power, especially at the intersection with activism.
— Amy Tobin, Executive Director of the David Brower Center
The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture. Since its opening, the graceful span has borne some 2.6 billion automobiles. Yet in one day, in one cubic foot of seawater beneath that bridge, 2.6 billion organisms visible to the naked eye float and swim through a blue-green habitat. Discovering these myriads is possible through the photography of David Liittschwager in One Cubic Foot Underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, the featured exhibit at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California.
Liittschwager’s One Cubic Foot series has explored life around the world, for example in Central Park and South Africa, amidst soil and forest, river and grassland. The David Brower Center commissioned Liittschwager, a world-class National Geographic photographer and resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, to bring his close-up survey of organic life to one of the world’s most famous vistas, California’s Golden Gate. The vibrant display of tiny, jewel-like diatoms, transparent larvae, sea worms and shrimp illustrates the vast variety of life that teems in the waters hundreds of feet below pedestrians and motor traffic.
To make One Cubic Foot exhibits, Liittschwager takes collections on different days and hours, creating a sample of what lives in a cubic foot over a 24-hour period. In this case, it took fifteen trips over a period of months, with each collection period resulting in two to four weeks of studio work. Sorting, identifying, photographing and cataloging specimens takes place throughout this period, mating science with art. (The Smithsonian receives all of the individual samples used for photographs and classifies them if Liittschwager and his biologist photography assistant have not already done so.)
Organisms selected to model for their species are then displayed in prints of various sizes, from large scale to, appropriately, one square foot. Various levels of magnification are employed, based on whether Liittschwager is emphasizing the biodiversity of his sample, the vast numbers of the organisms, or the fine characteristics of an individual crab larva (Family: Pinnotheridae, magnification: 5x) as seen to the right.
I wanted to be a photographer because I wanted to take pictures of the world I live in.
— David Liittschwager
Usually, Liittschwager isolates the sample from its surrounding by compositing the image of the creature against a sterile white background. The technique allows the viewer to focus on the animal, and not its backdrop, as you see to the left with a copepod. (Epilabidocera longipedata, magnification: 5x) There are exceptions to this style in the exhibit, however, and these illustrate that Liittschwager is equally adept at working strictly with the “canvas” nature has given him. Also compelling were the assemblages of multiple creatures and photographs into one single print, each species represented at the same size, no matter how large or small in real life. Here Liittschwager emphasizes that each creature is important, even if it is extremely tiny.
Oddly enough, the print that stole the show was a large-scale photo of a squirrel (from One Cubic Foot: Central Park). His paw is raised, as if waving. Seeing such a busy little animal “living large” and standing still, instead of frenetically running about, captured most visitors' attention for some time. It was as if we were more interested in intimately observing something we recognize over viewing the obscure things we know are out there, but for which our minds have no context.
The only sad part of this display was that the small format prints were very poorly presented. As you can see in the Center’s own photography (shown at the start of this article), they hang on the wall in the manner of an elementary school presentation. It was not worthy of the subject, the gallery’s mission to inspire concern for the natural world or the eminence of the photographer.
The event closes on January 26, 2012, with an opportunity to support the David Brower Center by purchasing the artworks. You can also meet Liittschwager and have the opportunity to speak with him. Arts Are Up! strongly recommends the One Cubic Foot series and encourages you to investigate this artist in touch with the smallest things on our earth.