Dr. Gary Greenberg

There is truth in the cliché that you can't judge a book by its cover. Gary Greenberg's latest photography book, A Grain of Sand: Nature's Secret Wonder, is an example of this. The cover features a generic image of waves on a beach. But what's behind the cover is actually very interesting. Greenberg is the world's preeminent artistic micrographer. He holds 17 patents for ultra-high-tech microscopes, which he uses to look at teensy-weensy things, and blow them up to show their beauty. He's photographed the smallest bits of the human body (capillaries surrounded by vivid blue air sacks inside lungs are especially pretty), plants, food, and money to discover visually intriguing things on the microscopic level. With A Grain of Sand, Greenberg exposes the array of colors, shapes, patterns, and materials that make up beaches around the world. Through the process of photographing the grains repeatedly with slightly different depth focuses, then overlaying them, Greenberg shows each facet of the grain. Greenberg admits that he was surprised at how deceptive the bland-looking sand was on the surface. You'll have a similar surprise when you look beneath this book's ordinary surface.
Tue., June 3, 7:30 p.m., 2008