max s. gerber(the latest shot)

last week i had a shoot that took place in a zoological laboratory. i’m not sure if the place was really appropriate to the subject, or if it was just available and really cool to be in. maybe a mix of the two. it was more interesting than any of our other options at the time, that’s for sure. i’d never been in a zoology lab before so it was kind of fascinating. as usual i’m impressed and amazed at the level of organization that goes on in places like this. i wish scientists could come and organize my office, but with less dead things or radiation or advanced mathematics.

my deepest sincere thanks to dr. john hafner who runs this lab for being so gracious in allowing us inside. i hope no permanent damage was caused. i really love listening to scientists talk about what they do, and to some extent i really love listening to anyone who’s passionate about their work. i think i sometimes confuse scientists because i tend to fixate on elements that are, to them, somewhat incidental. for example in this zoology lab i was really taken with the little tags used to mark all the specimens. they’re all written out by hand in felt tip permanent marker, even in this age of printers and computers. everything written out by hand, and it lends an old-time sort of aesthetic that’s really appealing. also it makes it sometimes difficult to distinguish immediately between specimens collected recently and those that are eighty years old.

paul was very impressed by a different thing. this involved pointing and exclaiming the following phrase like a little girl: “pickled bats!” (see above).

here’s corporal bennett, sitting in for a test shot that isn’t anything like what we ended up doing. sometimes it’s a drag to have a great location that’s wrong for the subject.