Anand Varma arrived in Berkeley as an aspiring scientist. UC Berkeley had been on his mind since he saw the T-Rex skeleton at the Paleontology Museum during a campus visit with his family when he was 14.
“They gotta be good at biology if they have a T-Rex here,” he thought.
Years later, as an undergrad, Varma took every class that ended in ology. His dreams of a career in science were derailed during his sophomore year when a professor recommended him for an assistant job with David Liittschwager, a National Geographic photographer known for his studio portraits of animals. Varma, who became interested in photography as a teen, was known amongst his classmates as the unofficial photographer on every field trip. The job seemed fitting.
In a little over a decade, Varma became one of National Geographic’s most established nature photographers. His first story about zombi parasites overtaking their hosts made it to the cover, an almost impossible feat, according to Todd James, his longtime photo editor at the magazine. To achieve this, Varma had to choose between his two passions.
“My initial intention was to try to do both, and I realized early that I could only really excel at one of those career paths at a time,” Varma says.
The lens turned on Varma in National Geographic’s new TV series, “Photographer,” a rare behind-the-scenes look into the process of some of the world’s most unique photographers. In it, he documents chicken embryos at his West Berkeley WonderLab.
Leaving traditional science behind has always weighed on him, but he found a compromise. Rigorous scientific questions guide his work. His projects are photographed using a combination of high and low tech, from high-speed cameras and tools from science labs like fiber optic lighting to hand-made contraptions. Hot glue and sticky tape have been essential. In return, his images take inspiration from noir and comic book aesthetics and use high-fashion lighting techniques, something he learned from Liittschwager.
If his stories result from scientific curiosity, his photos are solutions to the question of how to share the findings in a compelling way. His images are operatic, even epic depictions of minuscule scenes.
As Varma found his footing as a professional photographer, the urgency to return to science grew, too. Right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he focused on projects he could pursue in his home lab, a tiny shed in his Berkeley Hills backyard.
During the lockdown, he developed the idea behind WonderLab, a multidisciplinary space that mixes photography, science experimentation and education. Varma opened the space in West Berkeley two years ago. In a way, the lab is a reclamation of his colliding identities — there wasn’t a space for the type of practice he always dreamed of, so he made it. The National Geographic TV “Photographer” series, a project by filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, documents this process, following Anand, his soon-to-be-wife and San Francisco science teacher, Jodi, and his small team of assistants for over a year.
In March, Anand screened the episode for family and friends. He hadn’t seen the final version of his story, but he agreed to participate in the series because he wanted to work with Vasarhelyi and Chin. The idea of watching himself, quirks and failures included, felt daunting. He says watching it amongst people who know him took some pressure off.
Ahead of the series premiere, Anand talked to Berkeleyside about his work, WonderLab and his relationship with Berkeley. This interview was edited for clarity and length.
What is WonderLab?
Wonderlab is a hybrid between a kind of science lab, a photography studio and a classroom. We’ve hosted field trips for students from fourth graders to seniors in high school. We give them a little assignment with cameras to photograph subjects that they find interesting. They use the cameras to make observations they wouldn’t have been able to make with their naked eyes and then discuss with their classmates.
Can you talk about the WonderLab learning resources?
If you go to the National Geographic Education site, there are resources that educators can use in their classrooms based on my work. They’re developing a curriculum throughout this year that teachers anywhere in the world can use.
Why is the camera such a good tool for allowing you to see things differently?
A camera can show us what our eyes either can’t see or often miss at first glance; they can magnify details, slow down or speed up time and capture light in ways that we can’t see. And they can shape our attention. Even if the subject is technically visible to us, how the photographer chooses the composition can bring attention to something we would have missed. We treat cameras as if they are scientific tools for observing the world and sharing and discussing our observations.
Your work has always been at the intersection of science and photography, practically a niche you created for yourself. How has this experience been?
Working with Liittschwager showed me how photography could be this avenue to pursue what I wanted to do as a scientist: learn about the world and share it. But along that path, I felt like I was missing this part of my childhood dream of becoming a scientist, to contribute new knowledge. Photography was not my only identity, something was missing.
Has this changed?
Before the pandemic, I decided to do the Jellyfish project at home, just so that I could develop new filming techniques and immerse myself in the project. My mom mailed me all my old aquarium stuff from Atlanta, where I grew up. That was the origin of this idea of WonderLab; now that I’m working from home, what else would that allow me to do? I can bring back this approach to science that I had missed and incorporate elements of education.
Along the way, I realized that some of my photography contributed to new scientific understanding. And was starting to realize, hey, photography can be more than just communicating science, it can generate scientific data.
What type of scientific contribution?
The first came from the honeybee story (Varma captured the 21-day cycle of the development of bees from egg to insect). I got messages from scientists that said, we’ve been studying honeybee development for decades, and we learned new things from your video. I thought, wow, I didn’t realize nobody had seen some of the behaviors I’d captured.
What scientific questions are you interested in?
I’m most interested in developmental biology, which is the study of how life takes shape. It started with the honeybee project, and I did it again to show how polyps turned into jellyfish. I’m doing that now with chickens and cuttlefish. It’s just this sense that there’s a magical process. We all come from one cell and become an oak tree, human or giraffe. It’s insane.
Can you tell me some of your favorite spaces in Berkeley? Where do you go to get inspired?
One of my favorites is the Berkeley Horticultural Nursery, next to Monterey Market. Their greenhouse! If I’m ever feeling stressed out, I go there. It’s warm and humid, and you’re surrounded by plants. You get to appreciate details close up. But also, it feels like you’re immersed in the jungle somewhere else. Something about the temperature and the humidity, it’s very calming and beautiful.
What are you reading? What are you listening to?
Deep Work by Cal Newport, about how to create an environment for yourself to be able to learn cognitive skills and make meaningful contributions in a society built around distractions.
The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature by David Haskell. It is a biologist’s description of his observations on one patch of forest in Tennessee. His descriptions of all these minute stories he observes day to day resonate with me.
The music I’m finding the most peaceful at the moment is Ludovico Einaudi and Volts by David Roberts, a very nerdy podcast about energy policy.
This last question was posed by Todd James’s 10-year-old son at the show screening, and I thought I would pass along: What would you recommend for kids who want to do photography?
In the beginning, it is OK to play. You don’t have to have everything figured out; it’s more important to learn what you like and care about, and that is surprisingly hard to figure out. The only way to do that is by experimenting. Pick a goal for yourself and follow through with it, but also be willing to say: I tried this, and I liked it and will keep doing it, or I didn’t like it, and that is OK. Play and experiment and then reflect on that experience.
