The Daily Book of Photography

DAY 132

HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Stroboscopic Photography

A FLASHY NEW TECHNIQUE

While “flash” photography had existed in an evolving series of forms since the 1880s, the use of it was limited to the illumination of still subjects. Just before 1900, Ernest Mach was able to capture images of quickly moving objects like bullets by using repeated flashes or a pulsing light source. In the 1930s, Harold “Doc” Edgerton, a professor of engineering at MIT, developed the high-intensity, gas-discharge tube stroboscope, which eventually became the foundation for all electronic flash units.

A woman’s hands are captured photographically using stroboscopic ...