The Founders' Award winner, Downey Rose Float Association “Exploring the Everglades” float, moves through 127th Rose Parade in Pasadena, California January 1, 2016. (Photo by David McNew/Reuters)
Rowan Atkinson poses with Shaolin Monks at the “Johnny English Reborn” world premiere at The Entertainment Quarter on September 4, 2011 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)
Rowan Atkinson attends the UK premiere of Johnny English Reborn at The Empire Leicester Square on October 2, 2011 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images)
The International Trophy float on the parade route during the 123rd Rose Parade presented by Honda on January 2, 2012 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Do tears of joy look the same as ones of woe—or ones from chopping onions? In “The Topography of Tears,” the Los Angeles-based photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher explores the physical terrain of one hundred tears emitted during a range of emotional states and physical reactions. Using a Zeiss microscope with an attached digital camera, she captures the composition of tears enclosed in glass slides, magnified between 10x and 40x. “There are many factors that determine the look of each tear image, including the viscosity of the tear, the chemistry of the weeper, the settings of the microscope, and the way I process the images afterwards,” she says.
Dancers of the English National Ballet perform The Nutcracker at the Coliseum on December 14, 2011 in London, England. (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)