'SEEING THE UNSEEN' ~ Photographs by HAROLD E. EDGERTON at SMoCA

Friday, 24 August 2007 23:24

Scottsdale, Arizona - This fall, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art [SMoCA] will unveil 50 oversized photographic prints by Dr. Harold E. Edgerton, a pioneer of advancing photographical techniques that revolutionized the way artists use film. Edgerton’s use of stroboscopy—literally a method producing enough light in controlled flashes of short duration to effectively "stop motion" on photographic film—proved to be the foundation for the development of electronic speed flash used in modern cameras. On exhibition September 15, 2007 – January 6, 2008.

Edgerton was a scientist, inventor and a teacher and his photographs are some of the most recognized and memorable of all time. His work has captured a bullet in flight through an apple and athletes in motion; has stopped the flutter of a hummingbird's wings; has captured the detonation of atomic bombs at a hundred millionth of a second; and produced the renowned coronet picture of a drop of milk as it splattered into a saucer.

Organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT] Museum, Seeing the Unseen surveys Edgerton’s fascinating achievements in the realm of stroboscopic effects caught on film, as a true pinnacle in the history of photography.

ABOUT EDGERTON & THE STROBOSCOPE INVENTION:
While Edgerton was a graduate student at MIT, he designed the first electronic stroboscobic device in order to accurately measure the displacement of the rotor of a synchronous electric motor. He was unable to record this information with the technology available to him at the time, therefore he was prompted to develop an instrument that would emit enough light in controlled flashes capable of “stopping motion” on film; this was the stroboscope first described in the May 1931 issue of the journal Electrical Engineering. As his pioneering photographs stirred world-wide interest in strobe photography, his work became both scientific record and awe-inspiring art that increased our awareness and comprehension of the world around us.

The Scottsdale Cultural Council, a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, is contracted by the City of Scottsdale, Arizona, to administer certain city arts and cultural projects and to manage the City-owned Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, and the Scottsdale Public Art Program. The programs of the Scottsdale Cultural Council are made possible, in part, by the support of members and donors and grants received from the Arizona Commission on the Arts through appropriations from the Arizona State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Visit The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art at : www.smoca.org/