collection spotlight
Harold E. Edgerton
Tennis-Forehand Drive, Jenny Tuckey, 1949
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| H: Harold E. Edgerton, Tennis-Forehand Drive,
Jenny Tuckey, 1949, gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 in., de Saisset
Museum Permanent Collection, Gift of David Devine, X.1999.76, Copyright
the Harold & Esther Edgerton Foundation, 2002, Courtesy of Palm
Press Inc.] higher-resolution image |
Harold Edgerton was a master at revealing beauty in the unexpected. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in his images of athletes. In these works, the movements of golfers, tennis, and even football players are revealed as surprisingly graceful and complex. Due to Edgerton’s innovations in the field, stroboscopic photography is used most often today in the sports arena.
This image of Jenny Tuckey was produced in 1949, when Edgerton brought his strobes and other equipment to Longwood in Brookline, Massachusetts to photograph the touring tennis stars. Given a few moments with each player in the anteroom before they went out for their matches, he was able to photograph several of the players as they practiced. This image of Jenny Tuckey was produced during Edgerton’s trip to Longwood.
While at first glance this image seems to depict a blur of action, closer examination reveals that it actually represents many clearly defined, overlapping images. The image was produced with one of Edgerton’s important inventions: the multiflash. The multiflash is simply an electronic flash that is fired in rapid succession (like a stroboscope) while the camera shutter remains open. The technique produced high-speed multiple exposures of events such as the graceful moves of a tennis player hitting a ball within a single frame. The astonishing rate of approximately 100 flashes per second created this dramatic effect.
These photographic prints were made available as a gift to the Friends of Photography for their Member’s Program. The Museum’s copy of the photograph was acquired through a generous gift from donor David Devine.