Multimedia Gallery
Visualizing Social Science (Image 5)
"Guatemalan Market From Above." This image was taken by photographer Rachel Tanur and was included in an exhibit of her work titled "Visualizing Social Science," that was shown at the National Science Foundation (NSF) headquarters in Arlington, Va., July thru October 2006, as part of The Art of Science Project. The Art of Science Project was conceived and implemented by a cross-directorate committee of NSF staff. Its purpose is to bring to NSF, original works of art that visually explore the connections between artistic and scientific expression.
The following excerpt, written by Paula Stephan of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, accompanied this photograph at the exhibit:
Markets enrich our lives by providing more opportunities than we would have in their absence. Economists have long studied their properties and benefits. Rachel's pictures remind us of the universality and diversity of markets and how they enrich us in ways other than by simply offering the opportunity (as the late 19th century economist/sociologist Vilfredo Pareto noted) for "making someone better off without making someone else worse off." (Date of Image: 1998) [One of seven related images. See Next Image.]
More about the Photographer
During her short lifetime (1958-2002), Rachel Tanur traveled widely in the United States, China, Africa, Europe and Latin America, taking photographs that reflected not only her artistic flair and her training in architecture and urban design, but also her concern with people and their interactions.
Her photographs in this show, Visualizing Social Science, are accompanied by commentaries by social scientists from around the world. Many of the photos and commentaries reflect globalization and the resulting juxtaposition of traditional and modern artifacts and customs, often with ironic results. Others illustrate aspects of work--its ubiquity, its gender segregation, and its involvement of children. Many of the contributing female social scientists are struck, as was Rachel, with the beauty and incongruity of the public display of laundry hung out to dry; they layer fascination insights onto that beauty. Children and their socialization and the beauty and dignity of aging in traditional societies inspire comments, as do contrasts between pristine nature and environmental hazards posed by development.
More generally, Michael Kimmel writes, "Rachel makes a choice, reminding us of the simple dignity and even breathtaking beauty of the people over whom the economic machine runs in the march towards profits." And Daniel Rothenberg says of the photos and the photographer, "They express a direct, personal and emotional engagement with the lives of others while also conveying enough intellectual distance to be analytic. Their play between intimacy and commentary defines the photographer as someone bound to her subject, yet concerned with the larger implications of the images she records."
Credit: ©Estate of Rachel Tanur
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