Harold Edgerton

Bullet through a Light Bulb
1936, printed 1976–80

A high-contrast black and white photograph capturing the exact moment a light bulb is shattered, with fragments of glass suspended in the air and a puff of smoke emanating from the point of impact. The bulb is mounted on a socket base, and the scene is set against a dark background.

A high-contrast black and white photograph capturing the exact moment a light bulb is shattered, with fragments of glass suspended in the air and a puff of smoke emanating from the point of impact. The bulb is mounted on a socket base, and the scene is set against a dark background.

Not on view

Date
1936, printed 1976–80

Classification
Photographs

Medium
Gelatin silver print

Dimensions
Sheet: 16 1/16 × 19 15/16in. (40.8 × 50.6 cm) Image: 12 5/16 × 18 9/16in. (31.3 × 47.2 cm)

Accession number
96.125.5

Series
Ten Photographs; Death of a Light Bulb

Edition
Ed. 20

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/10920

Exhibitions

Flash: Photographs by Harold Edgerton from the Whitney's Collection

Mar 30–July 15, 2018

Harold Edgerton
122 works in the collection

View artist