My author’s voice project in response to the brief.
With my main interest within photography being sports based work, after some soul searching, I discovered it’s the ability to freeze action that appeals to me. The capability to halt momentum perfectly, allowing for the viewer to study moments that pass faster than an eye blinks, the unseen so to speak. In sports this could relate to stones flying from a rally cars wheel as it skelps around a corner, or the distortion of a football as a player strikes it full force during a match.
Taking this on board I decided to study the works of Harold Eugene Edgerton, the inventor of the modern flash’s forefather. His drive and inventiveness as he looked to capture a motor in motion ended up with him being known as papa flash. This developed into a mission to capture a world of unseen, not only content with using a stroboscopic to freeze time he also implemented fast shutter speeds that had been previously unheard of.
Capturing a bullet as it burst through an apple, the innards of the fruit billowing out, it looks almost art like and unreal but also lethal in other ways. The frozen still image protecting the viewers from the noise/ shock of such an event also adds an interesting aspect, offering a perspective of an event slightly removed from the actual act, the sheltered nature opening up possibilities of deeper discussions linked to guns and bullet damage. Some of his other works capture the unseen motions in sports, focusing on the stages of golf club swings and tennis serves, allowing the study of movement in ways previously unknown to man.
Craig Murray Photography 