A professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), Harold Edgerton transformed the field of
highspeed photography by adapting the stroboscope from a laboratory instrument into
a common photographic device. Flash photography usually captures a single
instant, but with a multi-flash strobe, Edgerton could record a series of
images on a single negative. The rate of the flash and length of exposure
determined the number of images registered on the film. For this image of a
black-clad man swinging an Indian club, Edgerton photographed at a rate of 100
flashes per second.