Part 3 – Traces of Time – Coursework

Shutter Speed

‘Freezing Time’

I was surprised to discover that today’s fast shutter speeds were developed so recently, and that the first photographs took hours to develop.  I started my photographic journey with film, many years ago, but even then, it seemed quick to take a photo.

Names to remember in shutter speed development:

In being able to stop motion, in the fraction of a second it takes to push the shutter button, we are able to see things that our eyes couldn’t actually see. Szarkowski, 2007, p.5 argues that we can derive much pleasure in the fragmenting of time because of the aesthetic quality of shapes we can capture

Bullet Through Flame (Schlieren Method) © Kim Vandiver and Harold Edgerton, 1973

This image by Harold Edgerton is an example of how there can be beauty in capturing something we wouldn’t normally be able to see.

I believe that images like this, capture both a fragment of time, but also movement, because as humans we do have the ability to discern movement, even if we can’t actually see it happening.

I like the idea of being able to capture both.

 

 

 

 

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