Particle for Scale is the first chapter of an ongoing series highlighting female scientists. By observing scientist as subject, photographer Erinn Springer creates an intimate journal and visual narrative around the daily life and discoveries made in the field. Disconnecting with the world in order to learn about the world, for weeks or months at a time, has inspired these profiles to the dedicated women across various branches of science.

Particle for Scale was completed with the women of NASA’s Atmospheric Tomography Mission (AToM), a collaborative mission led by Harvard University to examine how human-produced air pollution affects greenhouse gasses and other chemically reactive gasses in the atmosphere. Consisting of four sets of flights taking place during different seasons over the span of two years, each set is a 26-day journey aboard a flying laboratory that circumnavigates the globe on multiple axes. In April 2018, Springer interviewed and photographed eight women aboard the final deployment over the Arctic before they continued around the world.

How to View

During the day, the installment can be viewed on monitors inside the ICP Museum and during evening hours, images are literally “projected” onto the windows of the ICP Museum; they can be viewed from the sidewalk outside the Museum and are most visible after sunset. Learn more about Projected.

About the Artist

Erinn Springer is a photographer based in New York City. Originally from Northern Wisconsin, her artistic journey brought her to Parsons, the New School for Design, where she earned a BFA in communication design. Since then, Springer’s curiosity has steered her around the globe uncovering stories by using photography as a way to interact with the natural world. By welcoming the element of chance within her process, Springer’s work seeks to share life’s idiosyncrasies. Her projects and images have been featured by international galleries and in publications including the New York Times, VICE, and Photo District News.

 

TOP IMAGE: © Erinn Springer