Harold E. Edgerton
[Bobby Jones Golf Swing, Side View]

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Artist Harold E. Edgerton (American, 1903–1990)American, 1903–1990

CultureAmerican

Titles

[Bobby Jones Golf Swing, Side View]

Datec. 1938

PlaceUnited States

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 11 11/16 × 9 7/8 in. (29.7 × 25.1 cm)
Sheet: 13 15/16 × 10 7/8 in. (35.4 × 27.6 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Harold and Esther Edgerton Foundation

Object number96.910

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionA professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harold Edgerton transformed the field of high-speed photography by adapting the stroboscope from a laboratory instrument into a common photographic device. Flash photography usually captures one image per frame of film, but a multiflash photograph captures several moments in an extended exposure as a series of static images in a single negative. To capture the successive stages, Edgerton photographed people and objects in a dark room using a manually triggered flash synchronized with a special shutter that opened for each flash and then closed immediately to eliminate ambient light. Each time the strobe flashed, the figure registered in its new location during the exposure. The rate of the flash determines the number of images registered in the photograph, from a few isolated positions to many overlapping ones, as in this photograph of Bobby Jones swinging his golf club, photographed at a rate of 100 flashes per second for half a second.
ProvenanceHarold and Esther Edgerton Foundation, Boston; given to MFAH, 1996.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

The photograph is signed in pencil, verso: "Harold Edgerton 3840.1002".

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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