Page 11 - 2017 Year In Review

Dr. Harold Edgerton

Shortly after the Olympics, in a lab in Boston, an electrical
engineering professor at M.I.T. began tinkering with
equipment that would change sports photography forever. Dr.
Harold Edgerton’s invention was the electronic strobe - flash
lighting capable of stopping action on film at speeds up to a
millionth of a second. His photographs strobe captured “milk
drop coronets,” bullets flying through apples, and divers in
mid air. He also pioneered the use of his flash for underwater
photography.

For this shot of 1928 Olympic champion Peter Desjardins,
the diver dove into the M.I.T. pool in darkness. The flash
fired evenly at 20 flashes per second with each flash lasting 10
microseconds, or 1/100,000th of a second, while the camera
shutter remained open for the duration of the dive - less than
one and a half seconds. The flashing superimposed Desjardins
image on itself in the early part of the dive; then as his body
accelerated, the space he traveled between flashes increased.
Desjardins’ physique, his cut muscles, the highlights of his
hair and the splash of the water very well defined.

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