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

ExpandFavorite

Images(2)

Artist Jones Precision Photo Finish (American)American

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

Not on view

Explore Further

Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

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.