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Where The LIFE Project Story Went

my story isn't finished here beyond the bounce of this amazing miracle of how life evolved is the fact that we are now a new element we are reshaping planet earth with everything on it through our collective presence I showed you the same image before just as a reminder now that the situation is become pretty urgent so we are losing a lot of species you know scientists now say they are in the midst of a new mass extinction but this time it's not an asteroid this time it's us so I don't dwell on that this is not the time to do that we all know that there's something happening here that is much bigger than our own your limited time on planet earth and at kew gardens in the uk they're storing millions and millions of plants seats just in case these plants go extinct and then we may have something to nurture them backto life from their genetic material so that's two doom and gloom story of how much for losing but I would also like to argue that we're in the midst of an enormous expansion o...

f our knowledge about life on earth here we are adding new species through the tree of life literally every day from the discoveries made by biologist that are swarming out over our planet and this is one miraculous image that I made of a scientist actually touching a creature that he'd never seen before and he knew of his a new species because he happened to be the world expert on image with meaning first content so if horse you craps khun give us blood to test our drugs and maybe contribute to eye sight for the blind what other secrets maybe insight that is what I try to express with this image the miracle the life of these crabs but the relevance for us if you extend the sense of nature into our modern era um I think we need to drop the divisions between nature and ourselves many people now proclaim our era to be the one of human biology and what they're learning about ourselves and what we're going to be able to do with and for ourselves so I extended my life project into the hallways in the laboratories of a biotechnology firm in the san francisco peninsula genentech which invited me to become an artist in residence to work with their scientist and their engineers to create a new set of images that is based on what they see deep inside the human body microscopic patterns of living cells that are growing out this is a blood cell that is growing out in a tissue culture and to match them up but things that I'd seen on the face of the living earth and then we started combining them parallel patterns and be turned this into an exhibition it's another example of a creative collaboration using these amazing patterns that are extracted from microscopic visualizations in this case a cross section through a kidney which is really of minus a minuscule version of what is happening here of order flushing through a coastal system look at him to get him same patterns of liquid flowing through a structure and here's a cross section through intestines of a mouse with tumors growing inside the fragility of life and what can affect its survival and I combined it with this image to just stress how precious and temporary everything is and how easily the miracle of life can be disrupted by something that we don't know how to control so this project was amazing huh I did not know what ivan into and I came out with a new sense of myself in a new sense of nature and then then they published it in many forms it became a book and it became a traveling exhibition that is still circulating it really touched people on many different levels then we went a step further the suggested to a well known musical director named arundel sob who comes to the cabrio festival in santa cruz every year that we could turn life into a performance and she really liked the idea the idea to combine visual art with a meaning behind it that the musical art so we discussed possible composers with whom we could collaborate and therein and I both liked the idea of going to philip glass whose music I've loon and appreciated for many many years and it has a really organic quality that suggest how things evolve over time so philip liked the idea so he came on board here isthe maren talking that philip and then the invited a choreographer from the bay area alex nickels to become part of the creative team as well and alex became a bridge between music and visuals and he and I worked very closely together to give a final shape to the audiovisual score that we created together so the performance premiered in santa cruz california in two thousand six and has been performed over two thousand times in big concert halls around the world by quite renowned orchestras for wonderful occasions for the fiftieth anniversary of the world wildlife fund for the eightieth birthday off here wilson but we also created additional performances that ever meant to bring in school kits we did that that the baltimore symphony and then the baltimore school system came on board and we gave kids you know the chance to look at the images tonight created and the background information and then this is a scene from the lobby of the baltimore symphony hole uh they're kids were able to display the art today had created that is inspired by the life project so I'm going to show you a couple of images because it's just another wonderful example of how one piece of art can inspire somebody else to do something that takes takes things a step further this painting who's inspired by that image and this structure it's a three dimensional structure was inspired by that image and this metal structure was derived from that image so you can see the story of life goes on and home and it's another of wonderful expression of the whole notion that you know you can work to get of it others directly or indirectly and do something that builds on other people's accomplishments so we will do more performances maybe we'll bring it to san francisco one day and so stay tuned for the story of life as a continuing expression of the magic of life itself in our creative ability to respond to it with wonderful imagery thank you very much franz I'm really quite speechless to be quite honest and that's very rare for me this has been a such a beautiful presentation and the response that we've had online from the viewing community is just stunning so I'd like to read you some of the comments had just been coming in on that particular segment um so photo makers saying I love that france approaches conservation and protection of the planet from different angles so that different types of people can relate to the messages he's trying to convey the title of this class is just so perfect not only is it a skill art tohave a knife or high quality photography but look at the beautiful art that's out there to see if we take the time to look and recognize what we see amy sums it up brilliantly she just had to say this is just amazing simple and to the point stop pick saying I knew this would be worthwhile that I didn't know it would be this good michelle b says this has been an amazing class thank you franz for shape sharing your gift of vision I hope you'll be back again I'm feeling inspired to go out and look through my camera in a new way thank you france another view said absolutely magical presentation you have literally moved me to tears this's just beautiful thank you france thank you for creative life with such a stellar presentation and pat has said what great pictures if I could take one even close to these I would feel honored more than ever I just want to go out and take more pictures promise you've absolutely electrified our audience here I think everybody here in the studio is stunned as I am by that really wonderful way to finish this incredible two days thank you very much so but I would like to give it back to the audience are there graham are there other comments or questions that are triggered by the images have really wanted to keep you but in the spell of moving through time so I didn't dwell too much on the technicalities of the images but now is your time so I think one of the things I'm going toe be really mindful of as to take away from this is that most people press a shutter button and say that they took a picture and author out the two days you've been saying that you've been mate you make an image and I think the choice of verb there is really critical because it it goes to the art of seeing in the intentionality in what you're doing and so for me that's a really important takeaway and I'm goingto sort of not only shift my eye but shift my language around what I'm doing to remind myself of that thank you for saying that because I used the terms very deliberately we all without thinking about it we say we take a picture and that kind of is an expression that you take something away on you know almost without thinking about it you know it's quite different venue refer to that same processes making a photograph and that is what we've tried to do to get her here in the course of the last two days is to become aware of the differences between those two processes there's nothing wrong with taking a picture snapshots that weaken take casually it's become so easy but making a photograph is a deliberate act so thank you for for saying that you know this has been wonderful I think to be honest franz you've just just left everyone with such an incredible impression I don't share just a couple more messages saying I came here to learn about apertura but I've gone away learning about life koji is saying wow what a journey through life is so impressive and I moved to tears as well so I mean you really just given us the rap the presentation but any final thoughts you'd like to leave our audience with to encourage them to get out and live their life through their lens well I wish I could have spent more time talking to you about the story of life because you know there's a lot more to say about every one of these situations that I photographed and I could become like one of the scientists who knows too much I could have talked a lot more about the technicalities to but maybe we should save that for another day but in case anyone wants to look up all the details you know there is a book called life a journey through time and we have one copy here for the audience here in the studio to look through and we also have a lot of details on our website about the life project in case you want to to check that out set so let's leave life alone but and maybe since we've become a little bit philosophical here I can save all more thing about that you know the the embraced nature in in a much more passionate way in the last couple of decades since I first picked up a camera and they're living in a critical time now where you were affecting the fate of the planet as a whole and when I began this life project and what I came out it was a different sense of who we are and where we fit into the bigger scheme of things and I very consciously wanted to avoid the reference to nature in the title of this project because when you ask people on the street what nature means to them they probably are saying well that is where I go for the weekend it's this place with a fence around it that is protected but if you ask them is nature are you part of it they probably say no now nature is out there but if you replace the word nature of it life and you asked that same question do you feel part of life there's only one answer and I think that is the big step that we need to take together to make ourselves part of the planet and by doing so I'm sure that you're going to arrive in a new perspective that everything around you and everything that is in you as a starting point for a new kind of photography