Harold E. Edgerton
Cutting the Card Quickly

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Images(4)

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

CultureAmerican

Titles

Cutting the Card Quickly

Date1964, printed 1985

PlaceUnited States

MediumDye imbibition print

DimensionsImage: 14 1/4 × 18 1/8 in. (36.2 × 46 cm)
Sheet: 16 1/8 × 20 in. (41 × 50.8 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Harold and Esther Edgerton Foundation

Object number96.934.8

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionHarold Edgerton also developed a style of stop-motion photography to make time stand still with his stroboscopic high-speed photographs. A .30 caliber bullet, traveling 2,800 feet per second, requires an exposure of less than 1/1,000,000 of a second. To make this photograph, Edgerton synchronized his electronic stroboscope with a special high-speed motion-picture camera so that with each flash one frame of film was exposed. The rotation of the projectile bullet (caused by the rifling of the gun barrel) sliced a sliver of card between the two halves, which hover impossibly frozen in time.
ProvenanceHarold and Esther Edgerton Foundation, Boston; given to MFAH, 1996.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

verso bottom right corner in pencil "8501.2122/6404"

verso center in pencil "Harold Edgerton"

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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