Sounds like some cheesy Playboy photo spread. But it's from Der Spiegel, January 12:
Esther Horvath has for years been photographing women engaged in climate
research in the Arctic. Her photos show the challenges they face as
they go about their work in minus 30 degrees Celsius.
Every day at around noon, there is someone who steps out into the frigid cold and launches a balloon. And every time, that weather balloon provides yet another new snapshot of what is happening on Planet Earth, or at least on Svalbard, a chain of islands in the Arctic Ocean.
What that balloon has found over the years is that temperatures are rising. And nowhere are they climbing as rapidly as they are here on the 79th parallel in Ny-Ålesund, one of the northernmost settlements in the world. It is a place populated almost entirely by scientists, aside from the handful of people who keep the place running. Eleven countries finance scientific research projects here in the ice and snow – in an attempt to learn more about how our climate is changing.
The discoveries made here affect us all. And yet, far fewer people would know about them if it weren’t for Esther Horvath. She is one of the best-known photographers of her generation and has spent years accompanying expeditions and research programs in the Arctic and Antarctic on behalf of the Alfred Wegener Institute and of media outlets like National Geographic and the New York Times. With her photos, she has managed to do what science alone sometimes has trouble with: creating understanding, arousing curiosity and establishing a connection between the ice and the rest of the world.
"The darkness forces me to concentrate really intensely," Horvath says. Because of a COVID infection, Horvath did not disappear into the eternal night of the Arctic winter as planned in December, instead forcing her to spend her time in Hamburg. Still, Horvath seemed unexpectedly serene given that she had just missed a trip for the first time in her entire career. Gazing quietly out the window, she said: "To really understand things, you need quite a bit of time anyway."....
....MUCH MORE
Meanwhile at the journal Nature, February 1:
Passion, curiosity and perseverance: my mission to capture women in science on camera
Genetics researcher Elisabetta Citterio explains why she felt compelled to photograph 57 women who work in STEM fields.
In 2019, molecular biologist Elisabetta Citterio embarked on a journey to highlight the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and to broaden public interest in their research by photographing them. In the course of her project, entitled STEM Passion, Citterio, who studies the molecular mechanisms of DNA repair at the University of Milano-Bicocca in Milan, Italy, has photographed 57 women scientists across 25 research institutes in 9 countries. This month, STEM Passion opens at the Rahel Hirsch Center for Translational Medicine at the Berlin Institute of Health, to coincide with the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on 11 February....
....MUCH MORE,including slideshow
