A FISH HATCHES

Freedman's Getting Born (1978) began with an arresting closeup of trout eggs; now Cole and Wexler, who have all along been offering separate, closer looks at several of the same animals Freedman covers, show us many more stages in the trout egg's growth and the fry's development, as well as many of the adult fish's physical features. The pictures are effectively set up: a tiny egg is shown next to a penny; a human hand lifts the gill cover to reveal the layered arrangement; and a man's finger passes into the mouth and out the gill opening to show how the Water goes through. Human hands are even more prominent in the picture of trout fertilization: in a hatchery, it is done by people squeezing eggs out of the female, then squeezing sperm-containing milt from the male into the same pan. Perhaps a word on how it happens in nature is also called for, but Cole's approach constitutes a dramatic reminder that natural life cycles are no longer the rule.