Nabbing Time

Harold Edgerton

During the 20th century, faster shutter speeds made it possible for photographer to capture moments they had never captured before. Photographers could now photograph split seconds in time and an entirely different world of photography opened up. The above photo was taken by Harold Edgerton. Edgerton experimented with this notion of a split second in time, and he even took that idea a step further by taking photos of occurrences that happen so quickly that the human eye can't even see them. In the above photo, a bullet has just been shot through an apple that is actually resting atop another bullet. Surely the bullet holding up the apple would have fallen down after this photo was snapped. The photography of Harold Edgerton is a perfect example of how photographers of the 20th century began to take photos that "nabbed" time.