The task of a photographer as an artist is a difficult one, in that they are called upon to enhance the vision of their audience while showing something they all can see with their own eyes. They are called upon to improve our vision. As I’ve grown over the years to appreciate more and more the representational paintings of the past and good, well-crafted, abstract pieces of art, I’ve been attracted less and less to photography when I visit galleries and museums.

Watchtower, Beijing, China 2006. Photograph by Manuel Zimmer

So, having set the bar high in what it takes to impress me in this medium, I was stunned at the 2009 Employee Art Show at Rockefeller University when I stumbled upon the photographs of Manuel Zimmer. It wasn’t just that he’d chosen to show the grittier side of China in the works he had chosen to exhibit, but there was such an immediacy, clarity, and vibrancy to his work that I soon contacted him and arranged to attain several photos for my office and home, and gifts for friends.

Mr. Zimmer is a native of Osnabruck, Germany and he studied Biochemistry in Berlin. He attended graduate school in Heidelberg and Munich and arrived in the U.S. in 2004. He has been in the laboratory of Dr. Cori Bargmann for the past six years. His travels, well-documented in his photography, include trips to India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and China. His early work examined the industrial ruins of his hometown. Mr. Zimmer notes that “In my view, all faces of human urbanization have something aesthetically very appealing.” He states that “With my photography, I want to challenge people, in the same way the works of the photographers Bernd and Hiller Becher inspired me many years ago: transform the viewer’s aesthetic perception and open their eyes to see as beautiful, what is ostensibly not noteworthy, and at the same time provide a document of urban architecture.” One colorful photo of his that I viewed reflects this ideal. Taken in Hong Kong’s botanical garden, it wonderfully contrasts the sculpted greenery of the gardens with the austere backdrop of the modern glass skyline of the city.

My favorite work of Mr. Zimmer’s that I’ve seen in his portfolio would have to be the “Watchtower” taken in the Forbidden City in Beijing. What grabs the viewer is not just the beautiful colors of the green, manicured lawn and majestic tree, or the precision of the buildings in the background. What is captured here is a lightness of soul, a transcendence of the solid nature of material, a feeling that the tree’s leaves, which bend gracefully to the right, are a reflection of a shimmering world, akin to the bejeweled trees that grace the Buddhist Shambhala heaven. The tree scintillates. The clarity of vision is simply stunning.

I also keep in my office a photo of monumental Buddhist Temple mountain-sculptures that Mr. Zimmer took in 2006. In all the years I was a member of the International Center of Photography, I had never seen in a photograph such a precision of line, such focus, giving an immediacy of texture that I can say is akin to what the art critic Bernard Berenson dubbed an almost tactile sensation. The effect is arresting—you can’t help but stare and be taken off to a non-religious spiritual plane.

Also of note are the photos he took in Macau. Finding himself off-the-beaten-track and exploring narrow alleys and declining housing projects, he took several exceptional pictures. “During that time of year, there is a lot of rainfall,” he notes, and there is a humidity “exaggerating the colors of the partly moss covered stones.” One startling image captures a man on a scooter racing down an alleyway decorated with colorful flags carrying mysterious symbols. Another photo of a myriad of balconies with various laundries hanging down captures the essence of the city.
Although Mr. Zimmer believes that scientists generate many beautiful images in their work, he notes that “My passion for science does not mix much with my passion for photography. I think that in our modern times science and art are very different things.”

I hope that future Employee Art Shows reveal such great talent as I discovered with Manuel Zimmer.