• Editor’s Note: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is a Kane County icon, representing not just where we are but who we are and what we strive to be: forward thinking, tech-savvy and world renowned. This is a series of articles and images of Fermilab, presented here courtesy of longtime Fermilab photographer Reidar Hahn, writer Molly Olmstead and the Fermilab Frontiers e-newsletter.

Science can produce astounding images. Arcs of electricity. Microbial diseases, blown up in full color. The bones of a long-dead beasts. The earth, a hazy blue marble in the distance.

But scientific progress is not always so visually dramatic. In laboratories in certain fields, such as high-energy particle physics, the stuff that excites the scientists might be hidden within the innards of machinery or encrypted as data.

Those labs need visual translators to show to the outside world the beauty and significance of their experiments.

Reidar Hahn specializes in bringing physics to life. As Fermilab’s house photographer, he has been responsible for documenting most of what goes on in and around the lab for the past almost 30 years. His photos reveal the inner workings of complicated machinery. They show the grand scale of astronomical studies.

Hahn took up amateur photography in his youth, gaining experience during trips to the mountains out West. He attended Michigan Technological University to earn a degree in forestry and in technical communications. The editor of the school newspaper noticed Hahn’s work and recruited him; he eventually became the principal photographer.

After graduating, Hahn landed a job with a group of newspapers in the suburbs of Chicago. He became interested in Fermilab after covering the opening of the Tevatron, Fermilab’s now-decommissioned landmark accelerator. He began popping in to the lab to look for things to photograph. Eventually, they asked him to stay.

Reidar says he was surprised by what he found at the lab. “I had this misconception that when I came here, there would be all these cool, pristine cleanrooms with guys in white suits and rubber gloves. And there are those things here. But a lot of it is concrete buildings with duct tape and cable ties on the floor. Sometimes, the best thing you can do for a photo is sweep the floor before you shoot.”

Hahn says he has a responsibility, when taking photos for the public, to show the drama of high-energy physics, to impart a sense of excitement for the state of modern science.

In the installments that follow, Hahn shares the techniques he used to make some of his iconic images for Fermilab.

Next in the series: The Tevatron.

• FEATURE PHOTO CAPTION: Fermilab photographer Reidar Hahn shows the world the real-life drama of high-energy physics.