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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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 MarksThe photograph is signed in pencil, verso: "Harold Edgerton 3840.1002".
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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![[Bobby Jones Golf Swing, Side View]](/internal/media/dispatcher/296141/preview)
