As you might know from my previous proposal, many people have stereotypes about geology and geologist. Gollum, a famous character from Lord of the Ring, is what people think about the geologist: a creepy weird person who stays in a dark small basement room, holding a little rock and says “my precious!!”

This is for sure not true.

My project is using documentary photography to record the real lives of geology and geologist, and this series would include labs and field trips.

Labs

Lars Ehm, my mentor, is an associate professor from the department of geoscience. His research interests are the structure-property relationships of Earth Materials under extreme conditions. With his permission, I could get into his lab and record his daily research.

 

Professor Lars Ehm

“Not a Small Dark Basement Room”

Mineral Sample Examination

Contrast

  This picture Contrast shows the same mineral sample with the same angle but under different light conditions. The sample would show different colors (crystals) under the microscope.

Stained Glass Window in a Rock

“The Model Studio”

Toy Case

Diamond in the Piston

Sample Growing

“Yes, we have a lab, and yes, we do experiments”

We are Diamonds

The Oven

  Do you know why I love environmental studies/geology so much? It is because we have field trips! Staying in an office for a long time is the worst nightmare for me. The second part would show the pictures from my field trip.

Field Trip

Digging

“Treasure Hunting”

Marching on the Desert 

Painting With Shadows

North Africa On Long Island

Aeolian Process

The Cross

The Wave’s Painting

Marching on the Beach

Decay

V

  That would be my project. I love environmental studies/geology, for this is the subject that connects the labs and wild nature.

When compared with other science, like biology, physics, and chemistry, geology is a relatively young scientific field. This is a subject that learns about regions, history, and the structure of the Earth. Many people have misunderstandings about this young subject, and some say geology is not a real science, like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. However, in the future, I wish I could use some ways, like photography, to be a bridge between people and geology, to tell people what geology and geologists are doing for science and this beautiful world.

Yes, Sheldon is a brilliant physicist, and this scene does look painful. But as an environmental studies/geology student, damn I want to shoot him myself. Haha.