Harold Edgerton and Ori Gersht

Harold 'Doc' Edgerton

Photo by Yousuf Karsh
“Work like hell, tell everyone everything you know, close a deal with a handshake, and have fun.” – Harold Egerton

He used the same technique as friend and co-founder of the strobotic effect I mentioned in an earlier post 'Gjon Mili'

However his knack for inventing helped him create the electronic flash allowing even the speed of a bullet to be frozen in time.

"Making Applesauce At MIT."

His work would be difficult to recreate even with computers on hand to open and close the shutter. Edgerton took his photos in the days of analogue. Using the flash he created to intricate shapes happening so fast the human eye wouldn't be able to comprehend.

Rapatronic

After the second world war, he created his most impressive photos. For example he captured the very first stage of an atomic explosion. Cameras then couldn't open and close the shutter fast enough to create the image. Therefore he built his own, known as the Rapatronic.

Atomic Explosion. 1946–52. Gelatine silver print

                                         

I didn't know a lot about the Rapatronic so I looked online and I found an article about it. Below is a quote from it, as well as the link to the page if you wanted to have a closer look. 

'The rapatronic camera lens included two perpendicular polarizers, which prevented any light from entering. Sandwiched in between them was a Kerr cell. When the Kerr cell was energized, it affected all of the light which passed through the first polarizer by rotating its plane of polarization by 90°, realigning the light to match the second polarizer. This allowed the light to pass through both polarizers whenever the Kerr cell was provided with electricity, which is exactly what was done for 10 nanoseconds at the critical moment. This assembly provided an extremely fast non-mechanical shutter, exposing the film to the light for a minuscule fraction of time.'

Harold Edgerton with the
stroboscope

Flash in photography largely meant 'flash powder' which was a mixture of magnesium and potassium chlorate. This created an incandescent controlled explosion. 

He created a stroboscopic light that contained a bulb full of an inactive gas which was originally mercury, this was connected to a battery.  

The volt of the current would cause the gas molecules to charge, causing an instant flash of bright light. The duration of the flash was much easier to adjust, making it more flexible. The battery would recharge the flash and be shot again and again. Where as the magnesium-filled flashbulbs which could only be used once and had to be thrown away. He called it the stroboscope.

I like Harold's work. It's experimental and imaginative. Another photographer who uses a lot of explosions in his work is Ori Gersht 

Blow Up - Untitled 18, 2007

Ori Gersht is a contemporary Israeli photographer and video artist. His photographs look at the world with in site. Even in destruction you can find beauty. Especially in his series of 'Blow up' and 'On reflection'

On Reflection, Material E01, 2014

Without Harold Edgerton's invention, a lot of Gersht's work wouldn't be possible

Bibliography

• https://www.damninteresting.com/rapatronic-nuclear-photographs/
• http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140722-the-man-who-froze-the-world
• https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/compound-eye/httpblogsscientificamericancomcompound-eye20110725the-astonishing-stroboscope-of-doc-edgerton/
• http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/281785
• http://www.artnet.com/artists/ori-gersht/