Jones Precision Photo Finish
Photo For Win, Roosevelt Raceway, Third Race, June 17, 1961

Photo For Win, Roosevelt Raceway, Third Race, June 17, 1961
Photo For Win, Roosevelt Raceway, Third Race, June 17, 1961
Photo For Win, Roosevelt Raceway, Third Race, June 17, 1961
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Photo For Win, Roosevelt Raceway, Third Race, June 17, 1961
DateJune 17, 1961
PlaceWestbury, New York, United States
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 11 3/4 × 9 7/8 in. (29.9 × 25.1 cm)
Sheet: 12 × 10 1/8 in. (30.5 × 25.7 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Suzanne K. Morris in memory of Isabel B. Wilson
Object number2016.85
Non exposé

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
DescriptionIn the 1960s and 1970s, Jones Precision Photo Finish advertised an accurate, impartial record of the winning racehorse at the finish line, eliminating human error. To do so, the company worked with a camera specifically designed for the task. The photo-finish camera lens (a narrow slit 1/1,000 of an inch aimed directly at the finish line) is opened as the first horses approach and stays open until the last horse crosses. The film moves across the back of the lens in a continuous stream at approximately the same speed as the horses, capturing small slivers of the horses as they cross the line in sequential time, so that the winning horse’s nose is photographed about a fifth of a second before his tail. When the film is developed, measuring several feet long, the full bodies of the horses appear as they were photographed inch by inch as they crossed the line, thus recording the passage of time rather than documenting a single moment. In capturing the finish of a horserace, the photograph recalls the earliest photographic experiments to record motion in time by Étienne-Jules Marey and Eadweard Muybridge.
Provenance[Phil’s Vintage Jerseys, Lynbrook, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2016.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
recto (in negative, top edge): // [numbers] // RACE JUNE 17, 1961 3 [repeats in banner]
recto (in negative, lower left): PHOTO FOR WIN // BY JONES PRECISION PHOTO FINISH
recto (in negative, bottom edge): ROOSEVELT RACEWAY [repeats in banner] // [numbers]

[no inscriptions on verso]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Phillip T. Jones
c. 1979
Gelatin silver print
91.1595.10
Untitled
Tony Ray-Jones
1970–1972
Gelatin silver prints
2002.819.6.A-.C
Nathan
Harold Jones
1977
Gelatin silver print
2002.3254
Gates Pass
Harold Jones
1976
Gelatin silver print
2002.3351
Onion Ailsa Craig
Charles Jones
1895-1910
Gelatin silver print from glass negative
2020.498
Encampment, N. Ireland
Philip Jones Griffiths
c. 1968
Gelatin silver print
2004.2114
Untitled
Philip Jones Griffiths
c. 1968
Gelatin silver print
2004.2112
W S Amerika
Philip Jones Griffiths
c. 1969
Gelatin silver print
2004.2113
Night Religous Scene, Ireland
Philip Jones Griffiths
c. 1968
Gelatin silver print
2004.2115
North Ireland
Philip Jones Griffiths
c.1970s
Gelatin silver print
2004.2116
Picnic, Glyndebourne
Tony Ray-Jones
1967
Gelatin silver print
91.1023
Baptism, Sabino Canyon
Harold Jones
1976, printed 1982
Gelatin silver print
86.135.4