Image conscious: Service helps illustrate work

Top: An illustration from a surgical series by senior illustrator Joan Kozel shows surgeon William Turnipseed’s mini-laparotomy aortic surgery. The illustration was done for a lecture and for publication. Second from top: A brochure and program designed by Todd Brown for a 1998 conference, called “Mastering the Complexities of Psychiatric Diagnosis and Treatment,” visually likens the diagnosis and treatment of patients to solving a puzzle. Second from bottom: The image shows detail of a developing mouse embryo experiment and section done by Ian C. Scott in the laboratory of professor Daniel S. Greenspan, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. The specimen was about 7 mm long and almost invisible to the naked eye due to its transparency. Bottom: A chart compares various animal brains.

Images tell the story in this age of visual communication, and to help faculty and staff tell their stories better, a low-profile unit in the Medical School has been quietly expanding its range of high-quality art and photography.

The images on this page are a tiny sample of a wide range of digital and traditional art and photography services produced by the Medical Illustration and Photography staff.

Staff members support clinical, teaching and research projects at the Medical School, University Hospital and Clinics, health sciences and for other university faculty and staff.

Director Leta Hensen says the unit has branched out since another service, Photo Media, closed in 1997. For example, the Medical Photography unit at the Medical Science Center now offers a new service, extremely high-resolution macrophotography of specimens (including large specimens up to 9 centimeters across) at magnifications of up to 50 times.

“This service will be of particular interest to researchers wishing to have outstanding images of stained tissue sections, embryos, histological specimens and other images for publication, poster sessions and other applications where only the best quality will do,” says Doug Austin, a photographer who handles these special projects.

Medical Illustration and Photography also is the only place on campus where faculty and staff will find a computer slide- imaging service bureau. Files composed on computer can be imaged onto slide film for presentations and other uses.

In other graphics areas, staff also produce illustrations and animations, publications and web pages, and general design services. Faculty and staff outside the health sciences can use these services, but should check to make sure their own school doesn’t provide similar presentation help.

“We don’t turn anyone away, but whether we compete or not may not be our decision,” Hensen explains. “We will service staff from schools who have a service but choose to come to us for various reasons.”

For more information and further examples of the work, visit: http://media.medsch.wisc.edu