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Freeze!: Material Cultures of Movement Main Menu Start the Journey A Guided Tour Make Your Own Moves News and Events Bibliographies and Further Readings Acknowledgments

Seize A Moment

Wait! Hold still for a second—what do you see? These snapshots capture a moment in time, temporarily suspending the motion of their subjects. This paradox of motion and stillness has fascinated human curiosity and creativity for thousands of years. Can you really capture a single instant of movement in a stationary image? These photographers and their models did their best.

Harold Eugene Edgerton (American, 1903 – 1990) 
Diver, 1955  
Dye transfer print
Gift of David Stokes, 1991
On loan from Haverford College, HC12-6044 

A diver in a hot pink swimsuit soars above a shaking board, then plunges into the water below. His form is taut and disciplined, but his expression shows first the strain of the jump and then the breathless wonder of his brief flight. 

Harold “Doc” Edgerton was a professor of electrical engineering at MIT. He captured this image using stroboscopic technology, which generates multiple, high-speed flashes of light within the time of a single shutter opening. In a darkened setting, the flashes illuminate a series of actions, which are imprinted on one piece of film. Here, Edgerton uses cutting-edge technology, not simply to further scientific knowledge, but to frame moments of ecstasy and inevitability. 

Eadweard Muybridge (British, 1830 – 1904) 
Plate 617. Nude man riding white horse from series Animal Locomotion, 1887 
Collotype
Gift of Eadweard Muybridge, 1900 
On loan from Haverford College, HC2016-403_31    

A nude rider sits calmly on a jogging grey horse, whose legs churn as its mane lifts and settles in the breeze. Rather than a single image of a horseback ride, this plate contains twelve photographs, taken seconds apart.

Eadweard Muybridge’s “Animal Locomotion” series, produced in Philadelphia, contains hundreds of similar photographic sequences, showing people and animals engaging in ordinary activities in front of the gridded backdrop of Muybridge’s outdoor studio. These experiments, which have fascinated artists and scientists alike, relied on new photographic technologies like faster shutter speeds, which provided clearer action shots. They offered their original viewers fresh insight into the mechanics of motion.   

Bryn Mawr Painter (Greek, active ca. 500 BCE - ca. 480 BCE)
Attic Red-Figure Plate with Kottabos Scene, Late Archaic-Early Classical, ca. 500 BCE - ca. 475 BCE
Clay
Gift of Joseph Clark Hoppin, Professor of Archaeology
BMC P.95 

On this red-figure plate, a kottabos player prepares to fling the dregs from his kylix, or wine-cup. Kottabos was a game frequently played at Greek symposia, or drinking parties. Though we can’t be entirely sure how the game was played, there seem to be at least two common variants. In both the players flick their wine dregs hoping to either knock a bronze disc off a stand or to sink small dishes floating in a basin. Winners often got to claim a special prize.

This plate is one of Bryn Mawr’s most famous collection pieces and even gave the Bryn Mawr Painter his name. Perhaps it was even used at a symposium like the one it depicts. It only seemed fair to include it in ours! With a little help from modern technology, we can even bring the player into motion to help imagine what a kottabos game may have looked like.

George Vaux X (American, 1909 – 1996) 
Collection of 24 Travel Photographs, ca. 1930  
Gelatin silver print on paper 
Gift of Trina Vaux McCauley, December 2013
On loan from Haverford College, HC14-5240  
 
Two mounted cowboys thunder alongside a horned steer. Hooves pound the dust as one rider lunges to capture the running animal. This rodeo photograph captures an aspect of the cowboy culture associated with American westward migration. It is also a vacation photograph and part of a collection of snapshots, featuring smiling hikers and stunning vistas, which documents an East Coast family’s journey into the mythic Wild West.

The photo’s dynamic depiction of the stereotypical American rodeo reflects the nationwide fascination with the western part of the continent as a wild and unexplored land of adventure and opportunity. However, the United States’ increasing westward sprawl, driven by the fantasy of Manifest Destiny, often threatened the indigenous peoples who already lived in these spaces.

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Eadweard Muybridge, Plate 617. Nude man riding white horse from series Animal Locomotion A nude rider sits calmly on a jogging grey horse, whose legs churn as its mane lifts and settles in the breeze. Rather than a single image of a horseback ride, this plate contains twelve photographs, taken seconds apart.   Eadweard Muybridge’s “Animal Locomotion” series, produced in Philadelphia, contains hundreds of similar photographic sequences, showing people and animals engaging in ordinary activities in front of the gridded backdrop of Muybridge’s outdoor studio. These experiments, which have fascinated artists and scientists alike, relied on new photographic technologies like faster shutter speeds, which provided clearer action shots. They offered their original viewers fresh insight into the mechanics of motion.
Harold Eugene Edgerton, Diver A diver in a hot pink swimsuit soars above a shaking board, then plunges into the water below. His form is taut and disciplined, but his expression shows first the strain of the jump and then the breathless wonder of his brief flight.  Harold “Doc” Edgerton was a professor of electrical engineering at MIT. He captured this image using stroboscopic technology, which generates multiple, high-speed flashes of light within the time of a single shutter opening. In a darkened setting, the flashes illuminate a series of actions, which are imprinted on one piece of film. Here, Edgerton uses cutting-edge technology, not simply to further scientific knowledge, but to frame moments of ecstasy and inevitability.
George Vaux X, Collection of 24 Travel Photographs Two mounted cowboys thunder alongside a horned steer. Hooves pound the dust as one rider lunges to capture the running animal. This rodeo photograph captures an aspect of the cowboy culture associated with American westward migration. It is also a vacation photograph and part of a collection of snapshots, featuring smiling hikers and stunning vistas, which documents an East Coast family’s journey into the mythic Wild West. The photo’s dynamic depiction of the stereotypical American rodeo reflects the nationwide fascination with the western part of the continent as a wild and unexplored land of adventure and opportunity. However, the United States’ increasing westward sprawl, driven by the fantasy of Manifest Destiny, often threatened the indigenous peoples who already lived in these spaces.
Attic Red-Figure Plate with Kottabos Scene On this red-figure plate, a kottabos player prepares to fling the dregs from his kylix, or wine-cup. Kottabos was a game frequently played at Greek symposia, or drinking parties. Though we can’t be entirely sure how the game was played, there seem to be at least two common variants. In both the players flick their wine dregs hoping to either knock a bronze disc off a stand or to sink small dishes floating in a basin. Winners often got to claim a special prize. This plate is one of Bryn Mawr’s most famous collection pieces and even gave the Bryn Mawr Painter his name. Perhaps it was even used at a symposium like the one it depicts. It only seemed fair to include it in ours! With a little help from modern technology, we can even bring the player into motion to help imagine what a kottabos game may have looked like.
2021 GIF rendered by Mallory Fitzpatrick after an original from ca. 500 BCE - ca. 475 BCE (BMC P.95)
2022 GIF rendered by Mallory Fitzpatrick after an original from 1887 (HC2016-403_3)