Now on view: A Perfect Medium: An Ode to Water by Bob Farese, Jr.
Now on view in the Salata Institute’s Center for the Environment, the exhibition explores water as both a fundamental source of life and an increasingly vulnerable part of the natural world. Through photographs of open water, coastlines, forest streams, glaciers, and waterfalls, Farese invites viewers to consider the beauty and complexity of water and our connection to it at a time when climate change is reshaping watersheds, coastlines, ecosystems, and communities around the world.
Throughout his career as a physician-scientist, Farese has sought to understand the biological processes that sustain life. His photography extends that spirit of inquiry through careful observation of the natural world, using light, time, and movement to encourage viewers to look more slowly and closely.
The exhibition features selected prints from Farese’s second photobook, A Perfect Medium, and is accompanied by an original three-part composition by Mike Long. Available to listen to in the gallery, the music traces a metaphorical journey from the origins of the universe and the flow of energy through the movement of tides and, ultimately, the emergence of life in water.
“Wonder lies at the heart of both art and science,” Farese writes. “To behold water as wonder is to look carefully, remain curious, and re-imagine our relationship to the elemental source of life.”
About Bob Farese, Jr.
Bob Farese, Jr., is a physician and scientist whose work bridges medicine and cell biology. His scientific research at institutions including Harvard University, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and the Gladstone Institutes at the University of California, San Francisco, has explored fundamental biological and physiological processes underlying diseases of metabolism and neurodegeneration. In 2026, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In recent years, Farese has turned his creative focus to photography. His first photobook, Am I Not Light (2021), explored themes of arrival and belonging through images and verse. A Perfect Medium is his second book.
A Perfect Medium: An Ode to Water is on view at the Salata Institute’s Center for the Environment, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, through the 2026-2027 academic year.
For more information:
Laura Hanrahan, laura_hanrahan@harvard.edu
For press inquiries:
David Trilling, david_trilling@harvard.edu