CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/7/2019

In 'Harold Edgerton: Seeing the Unseen,' sublime awe and human creativity for the common good

It’s finals weekend at the U.S. Open, and we’re celebrating with this 1949 photograph of mid-century women’s tennis star Gussie Moran demonstrating a power serve, reproduced from Harold Edgerton: Seeing the Unseen, Steidl’s long-awaited monograph on the revered MIT electrical engineering professor and pioneer of electronic strobe flash photography. “For much of the twentieth century, Harold Edgerton’s brilliant images were ubiquitous, compelling to everyone,” Deborah G. Douglas writes. “His tools and techniques transformed entire professions from sports photography to maritime archaeology.” She concludes, “Through his photographs, this American original displayed an alchemist’s ability to turn the straw of industrialization’s relentless, systemic demand for efficiency for the ends of power and wealth into the gold of sublime awe and appreciation of human creativity in service to the common good.”