Sondra Barrett, born in Philadelphia, raised in Philadelphia and Chicago, graduated from the University of Illinois Medical School with a PhD in biochemistry, started her career as a medical scientist.  On the faculty of the University of California Medical School in San Francisco she discovered the microscope and the inner world of cells and molecules.

Her research funded by the National Cancer Institute and American Cancer Society was aimed at developing diagnostic and treatment tools for human leukemias.  This took her out of the lab to meeting patients and their families.  Life changed.  A father asked her to photograph his son's leukemia cells to use for visualization and soon Dr. Barrett was bringing slide shows to pediatric oncology clinic showing all the kids normal and abnormal cells,  molecules and landscapes from nature. 

She used the microscope to document her research but an exhibit at the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park turned her life inside out and upside down.  A photographic exhibit of chemicals of the brain gave her an unexpected peek into the potential of art in our molecules.  Ever since she has been photographing, as art, the molecules of life, plants and wine.

Invited to be artist-in-residence at Sterling Vineyards, she worked with the winemakers exploring their winemaking questions plus a few of her own.  Over the years she has photographed, through the microscope, wines from their beginnings to 44 years old. As a scientist, she always looks for connections and patterns of information.   She claims that the images reveal stylistic expressions of the wine, ageability and even loss of vitality.  Maybe they are a 'wine code.' 

In 2003 she connected with WineSpirit, an educational group in Napa, aimed at elevating the sacred in everyday life.  Once more, her perspective was altered to begin to look at wine beyond the molecules, as to how it has contributed to human culture for thousands of years.  She began interviewing winemakers and new wines, interned for the 2004 harvest at a small Russian River winery, and from her explorations, wrote and illustrated this unique new book Wine's Hidden Beauty.

Dr. Barrett believes that wine and the grape have a purpose, as do our own cells.  She lectures, offers visual tastings, weekend workshops and accepts commissions to illuminate the beauty of wine.