Back Dive, 1954, 14 x 11 inch silver gelatin print
Now on view at Danziger Gallery through September 6th is “Sport”, a selection of sports images by Harold Eugene Edgerton, the photographer who is credited with inventing the strobe flash. Edgerton or “Doc” as he was affectionately known, developed an electronic technology which allowed for high-speed photography and captured moments previously unseen by the human eye.
With his new flash Edgerton was able to photographically freeze the action of such things as drops of milk falling into a saucer, bullets going through everyday objects, and the wing motion of various birds. But he was particularly drawn to capturing the action of sports and sports greats – Bobby Jones’ golf swing; tennis champion Gussie Moran’s serve; Wes Fessler (one of the Buckeyes’ greatest football players) kicking a football.
Top: Two Fencers Multiflash, 1938, 10 x 16 inch silver gelatin print; Bobby Jones, 1938, 11 x 14 inch silver gelatin print
Edgerton was born in Fremont, Nebraska, in 1903 and received his doctoral degree (and his nickname “Doc”) from MIT where he taught and worked for most of his life. Trained as an electrical engineer Doc’s experiments were initially made with relatively primitive flash tubes but in the early 1930s Edgerton developed a tube using xenon gas that could produce high-intensity bursts of light as short as 1/1,000,000 second.
The xenon flash could also emit repeated bursts of light at regular and very brief intervals and was thus an ideal stroboscope, a tool used to measure the rotation speed or revolution velocity of a moving object. The flash frequency of a stroboscope is adjustable to ensure accurate measurement.
Top: Peter Desjardin Diving, 1940, 20 x 16 inch silver gelatin print; Gussie Moran, Multi-Flash Tennis Serve, 1949, 20 x 16 inch silver gelatin print
As interesting as these images were as scientific or visual phenomena, Edgerton was as much an artist as a scientist or engineer. The photographs he took over several decades possessed an aesthetic beauty that was recognized by the fine art world, and his works have been collected and exhibited in virtually every major museum in the world.
