An Evening with David Liittschwager

Co-presented by PhotoAlliance and California Academy of Sciences

Date: Wednesday, October 19, 2022 6:30 pm PDT
Location: California Academy of Sciences Morrison Planetarium

Tickets: $20
(California Academy of Sciences members receive 50% discount, please check your recent membership email newsletter for details)

Directions to California Academy of Sciences HERE

About David Liittschwager’s Photography

David Liittschwager uses the power of photography to both systematically document physical reality and spark an emotional connection between viewer and subject. His photographs offer us the chance to gain a deeper insight and appreciation of the natural world bustling with life all around us, often hiding in plain sight.

His series “In One Cubic Foot” was inspired by a desire to document the biological diversity of life on Earth. Liittschwager started by choosing six unique locations around the globe, ranging from a cloud forest in Costa Rica to the waters beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. In each place, he arranged a one cubic foot metal frame and watched to see what passed through that space over twenty-four hours. It turned out that an astonishing number of beings, as many as 9000 in a cubic foot of water in the San Francisco Bay, appeared!

In a 2012 interview with Jeff Greenwald in Smithsonian Magazine, Liittschwager noted that, “One surprise is how odd and tiny so many of the creatures turn out to be. Most of the world’s biodiversity is small, cryptic things. Things that hide in cracks and underneath and on the backside of the things that we see.” Employing a white background and a gently glowing light, Liittschwager patiently and painstakingly represents this biodiversity, using microscope and petri dish to isolate and enlarge these myriad odd and tiny creatures. By spending significant time and effort to present not just the larger animals but also the small in equally beautiful detail, he creates a visual system in which each creature is on par with the others. Liittschwager asserts that, “Even small spots matter. And there is no small spot that’s not connected to the place right next to it. There’s nothing that’s separate.”

Join us for this evening at the Academy of Sciences to celebrate Liittschwager’s new book Octopus, Seahorse, Jellyfish (National Geographic, 2022), which focuses on three notoriously mysterious sea creatures–the jellyfish, octopus, and seahorse–and how they perceive the world. Liittschwager employs his specialized portraiture techniques to capture these creatures’ pulsating bioluminescence, translucent bodies, and ethereal movements.

Blue Button, Porpita porpita.

Contents of one dip of a hand net.

Common Name: Map Treefrog, Scientific Name: Hypsiboas geographicus, Size: 4.5cm overall length, Location: Tiputini Biodiversity Research Station, Yasuni Biosphere Reserve, Orellana Province, Ecuador,

A spectacle of Calcification photographed at the Laboratory of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, Benthic Ecology Group, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Ischia, Italy.

Common Name: Pale Octopus, Scientific Name: Octopus pallidus, Size: mantle is 4.5 inches long, Notes: near Sorrento, Victoria, Australia.

CO₂ bubbling from seafloor vents acidifies the water to levels that might one day prevail all over the oceans.

Dull mats of algae replace the colorful diversity—"fair warning," says biologist Jason Hall-Spencer.

At Castello Aragonese, a volcanic island off Naples, Italy.

Healthy seafloor looks like this: a lumpy quilt of red sponges, white barnacles, lilac coralline algae, sea urchins, and (near the center of the photograph) one well-camouflaged fish. It's a tompot blenny.

All photos © David Liittschwager

About David Liittschwager

David Liittschwager is a freelance photographer who grew up in Eugene, Oregon. Between 1983 and 1986, he worked as an assistant to Richard Avedon in New York City. After working in advertising, he turned his skills to portraiture with an emphasis on natural history subjects. An Academy of Sciences Research Associate from 1979 through 2002, David Liittschwager’s work is currently featured on the Color Of Life exhibition title walls at the museum.

Now a contributing photographer to National Geographic and other magazines, Liittschwager is also a successful book author. In 2008 he collaborated with Alice Waters on the Edible Schoolyard book. In 2002 he produced the books Skulls and X-Ray Ichthyology: The Structure of Fishes for the California Academy of Sciences. Liittschwager’s books in collaboration with Susan Middleton include Archipelago, Remains of a Rainbow, Witness, and Here Today.

Recipient of an Endangered Species Coalition Champion Award for Education and Outreach and a Bay & Paul Foundation Biodiversity Leadership Award, Liittschwager lectures and shows his work in both fine art and natural history contexts. His photographs have been exhibited at many museums, including the American Museum of Natural History in New York City; the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.; the Honolulu Academy of Art in Hawaii; and at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

Liittschwager was honored with a 2008 World Press Photo Award for his article on marine microfauna, which appeared in the November 2007 issue of National Geographic magazine. He lives in San Francisco.

About California Academy of Sciences

The California Academy of Sciences, founded in 1853, is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California. It is amongst the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The mission of the California Academy of Sciences is to regenerate the natural world through science, learning, and collaboration.

PhotoAlliance Collector Print Program

Jellyfish with Young

PhotoAlliance has 6 remaining David Liittschwager prints available through our Collector Print Program. We are offering a special 20% discount on all of our David Liittschwager collector prints through October and November only! Click the images above to go to the print page.

New Book

Octopus, Seahorse, Jellyfish by David Liittschwager

Published by National Geographic, 2022.
256 pages
ISBN 978-1042622170908

Octopus, Seahorse, Jellyfish is available for purchase at:
Disney Books

CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES EVENT PROTOCOLS RE COVID-19
as of 09/16/22
The California Academy of Sciences follows the San Francisco Health Department requirements:

Vaccination recommended but not required
Masks recommended but not required

This event is proudly presented in partnership with the California Academy of Sciences.
Students are always welcome to attend PhotoAlliance lectures for free. Please present your current student ID at the door.

PhotoAlliance believes in an accessible, inclusive and supportive arts community. The income we receive from ticket sales offsets our costs and allows us to pay artists for their work. If you are unable to afford the admission cost of a PhotoAlliance event, we welcome you to join our volunteer team and attend for free, more information HERE.