Rare portraits capture real Cambridge at work

On The Shoulders Of Giants is a unique project which slips past the college walls to capture a community on the leading edge of human knowledge.

New portraits of Cambridge academics like “A Brief History of Time” author Professor Stephen Hawking, Royal Society President Martin Rees and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alison Richard, jostle for space next to those of lecturers, students, porters, cleaners and support staff. All have allowed photographer Howard Guest unprecedented access to their working lives inside one of the world’s top universities.

“Cambridge is full of people who are expanding the boundaries of human knowledge every day. Capturing that world on film has been an astonishing adventure,” Guest said.

In the course of his work, Guest has been given leave to train his camera on staff in settings ranging from the library donated by 17th century diarist Samuel Pepys to restricted locations rarely seen by those outside the University, such as the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory and Charles Darwin’s rooms in Christ’s College.

“Howard has that rare gift as a photographer of being able to capture something more than a simple likeness" said Duncan Robinson, who curated the exhibition. “I can think of no better way to portray our university than through the people who make it what it is.”

On the Shoulders of Giants will run at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum from June to September 2008.