HAROLD EDGERTON RESEARCH / SEQUENCES OF MOVEMENT

Harold Eugene Edgerton was born on April 6, 1903 and he died January 4, 1990 aged 86. He was a Professor of Electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of technology. Here is largely credited with transforming the stroboscope from an obscure laboratory instrument into a common device. He also was deeply involved with the development of sonar and deep sea photography, And his equipment was used by Jacques Cousteau in searches for shipwrecks and even the Loch Ness monster. Edgerton was born in Fremont, Nebraska, he is the son of Mary Nettie Coe And Frank Eugene Edgerton, A descendent of Richard Edgerton, One of the founders of Norwich, Connecticut And they descendant of Gov William Bradford (1592-1657) of the Plymouth Colony and a passenger on the MayflowerNow. His father was a lawyer, journalist, author and orator and served as the assistant attorney general of Nebraska from 1911 to 1950. Edgerton grew up in Aurora, Nebraska but he also spent some of his childhood years in Washington DC and Lincoln, Nebraska. 

In 1937 Edgerton became a known photographer who used stroboscopic equipment, in particular, multiple studio electronic flash units, to produce these stunning photographs, many of which appeared in Life Magazine. When taking multi flash photographs this strobe light equipment could use flash up 120 times a second. Edgerton was a pioneer in using short duration electronic flash and fast events photography, subsequently using this technique to capture images of balloons at different stages of the bursting, a bullet during its impact on an apple, or using multiflash to track the motion of a devil stick, for example. Edgerton is equally recognised for his visual aesthetic, many of the striking images he created in illuminating phenomena that occurred to fast for the naked eye adorn art museums worldwide. His high-speed stroboscopic short film Quicker'n a Wink won an Oscar in 1940. 

Edgerton remained active throughout his later years and was seen on the MIT campus many times after his official retirement. Unfortunately he died suddenly in January 4, 1990 at the age of 86 and is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Milk Drop Coronet, 1934
20 x 16 inches
Gelatin silver print

I really like the simplicity of Edgerton's Photographs, for example this famous Milk Drop photograph. The splash of the milk has create a sticking shape as the droplets have risen in the air but almost looks semetrical all the way round making the image look very unique. I also think that this photograph looks as if it follows a certain art design/movement. 

The image below is my take on of the Milk Drop instead we just used a bowl of water and dropped an apple into it to created the big splash. We used a massive set up for this shoot with a large DSLR camera with a large zoom lens also with infrared triggers to set of the flash when the apple goes through it. The camera is set on a 10 second exposure time so that the camera doesn't miss the shot. The room is pitch black so when the flash goes off the camera only captures the moment when the splash happens.