Two women dressed for a party take photos of each other outside a venue in London, Friday, December 17, 2021. On what would normally be one of the busiest times for pubs and restaurants just before Christmas, customer numbers are down in central London due to concerns about the new omicron variant. Friday night in Central London was muted with one bar saying they have 30 customers inside when there should have been 170, with large amounts of cancellations in recent days. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)

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.

Student protestors, including one girl with a camera, struggle with soldiers from the Chinese Army, the PLA. Tiananmen Square, 1989. (Photo by Jeff Widener/Associated Press)

Emma Watson attends the Elle Style Awards 2014 at one Embankment on February 18, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images)

Terashima Takeshi and Akaishi Kazuya of Japan block a shot from Indonesia during day one of the ISTAF Super Series at Palembang Sport Convention Center on February 23, 2012 in Palembang, Sumatra, Indonesia. (Photo by Nicky Loh/Getty Images for UFA Sports)

A boy runs past one of the exhibits during the Dinosaurs exhibition in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, August 21, 2014. “Dino Park” has opened at Belgrade's Kalemegdan Fortress. (Photo by Darko Vojinovic/AP Photo)

This 1972 VW Beetle was one of over 150 cars at the eighth annual historic U.S Route 40 Mini-Nationals car show held on Sunday at Tecumseh high school. (Photo by Marshall Gorby/AP Photo)

Two young boys kneel on stools on either side of a round table as one uses a match to this the other's cigarette, November 12, 1928. (Photo by FPG/Getty Images)