Harold Edgerton

Death of a Light Bulb/.30 Cal. Bullet
c. 1936

A black and white photo collage featuring four sequential images of a light bulb mounted on a socket, capturing the moment it is shot and shatters. The first image shows the intact bulb, the second shows the initial impact, the third displays the bulb with a small puff of smoke, and the fourth shows the bulb exploding with shards of glass flying away. There is handwriting at the bottom of the images indicating the title and the artist's signature.

A black and white photo collage featuring four sequential images of a light bulb mounted on a socket, capturing the moment it is shot and shatters. The first image shows the intact bulb, the second shows the initial impact, the third displays the bulb with a small puff of smoke, and the fourth shows the bulb exploding with shards of glass flying away. There is handwriting at the bottom of the images indicating the title and the artist's signature.

Not on view

Date
c. 1936

Classification
Photographs

Medium
Gelatin silver print

Dimensions
Sheet: 19 15/16 × 23 7/8in. (50.6 × 60.6 cm) Image: 16 7/16 × 19 15/16in. (41.8 × 50.6 cm)

Accession number
96.117.26

Edition
29/40

Credit line
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation

Rights and reproductions
© 2010 MIT. Courtesy of MIT Museum.

API
artworks/10827

Exhibitions

A Few Frames: Photography and the Contact Sheet

Sept 25, 2009–Jan 3, 2010

Harold Edgerton
122 works in the collection

View artist