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Scripps Scientists Take Center Stage in Vanity
Fair Shoot
Ioana Patringenaru | February 12, 2007
It was almost 5 p.m. Wednesday, and Nancy Knowlton,
a marine biologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
at UCSD, was wearing a wet suit and holding a huge
white head of coral while walking back and forth in
ankle-deep water at the foot of the Scripps Pier.
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Three Scripps scientists pose for Vanity Fair at the foot of the Scripps Pier. |
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To her right, Ralph Keeling, a Scripps global warming
researcher, was holding a delicate glass jar used
to take air samples around the globe. To her left,
Scripps director Tony Haymet was wearing a dark-blue
sports coat and knee-high green rubber boots.
One photographer and four assistants buzzed around
them. Every once in a while, puzzled passers-by stopped
to ask what this was all about. The explanation turned
out to be quite simple: Haymet, Knowlton and Keeling
were all taking part in a photo shoot for Vanity
Fair. They will be featured in the magazine’s
special global warming issue in May in recognition
of their work.
Both Keeling and Knowlton are photo shoot veterans.
He appeared in The New York Times Magazine
and many other publications. She has been featured
in the Los Angeles Times and other papers.
It’s not her first appearance in a glossy magazine,
either. When Knowlton was in her twenties at Smith
College, a Glamour crew came to campus. Knowlton
made it into that photo shoot too – sans coral.
She and Keeling both said they enjoyed posing for Vanity Fair.
“What was it like dressing up as a mermaid? Actually, it was fun,” Knowlton said.
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Nancy Knowlton holds up a strand of kelp for photographer Brigitte Lacombe. |
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During the shoot, she first held a big piece of lacy coral, which came from the Birch Aquarium’s collections. But she had some issues with her accessory. For one, it was, well, dead. It also doesn’t grow off San Diego. So she picked up some kelp, which was alive and native to the region. Lacombe suggested that Knowlton wear the seaweed. The researcher draped it around her shoulders, like a shawl. By the end of the shoot, she was holding a starfish in one hand and more seaweed in the other, in addition to her kelp scarf.
“I do a lot of public outreach,” Knowlton said. “But I’ve never dressed up in seaweed.”
The idea was to shoot the three scientists in their natural habitat, carrying the tools of their trade. Knowlton, who is the director of Scripps’ Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, researches the ecology and evolution of coral reef organisms. She has worked all over the world and dives often – hence the wetsuit and the coral.
Keeling tries to understand the causes of recent changes in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and their relation to climate change. He has made pioneering measurements of changes in atmospheric oxygen concentrations– hence the flask used to take air samples. He also is the steward of a program created by his father, the late Charles D. Keeling, that measures changes in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
Haymet is vice chancellor for marine sciences, director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD and dean of the Graduate School of Marine Sciences – hence the sports coat. The boots were for wading in the water.
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| Photographer Brigitte
Lacombe and her crew. |
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Scientists showed up at the foot of the Scripps pier around 3:45 p.m. Wednesday. They met photographer Brigitte Lacombe, who had flown in from New York. She specializes in documenting movies from behind the scenes and has recently worked on “The Devil Wears Prada” and “King Kong.” Some of her previous subjects include the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Sen. Barak Obama, Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts.
For Wednesday’s shoot, the petite woman with shoulder-length white hair and a French accent waded in the water barefoot and got the hem of her flowing black skirt wet. Three assistants helped her juggle between several digital and medium-format film cameras. Another assistant videotaped the shoot.
Lacombe had the three scientists walk back and forth, talk to one another and point to their various accessories. She seemed intent on getting pretty pictures rather than telling a story, Keeling said. But she was easy on her subjects, he added.
The photographer paid attention to everything, including water ripples and researchers’ hand gestures, Keeling said. She worked in fairly low-light conditions, with the sun hidden behind the clouds for most of the shoot. But she seemed confident she would get good shots, he added. The shoot ended around 5:30 p.m., after a gorgeous sunset flooded La Jolla Shores with rich, orange light.
Keeling said he was anxious to see the results but would reserve judgment until then. “I never bought Vanity Fair in my life until last year, when they had a special global warming issue,” he confessed. |
