Trampoline 1960

Curator: Here we have Harold Edgerton’s photograph, simply titled "Trampoline", housed here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It feels like a visual echo, or maybe a dance captured in fractured time, a leap into the void, almost haunting. Curator: Edgerton was a pioneer of stroboscopic photography, freezing motion in a way that revealed hidden moments. Think of it: before this, we couldn't truly *see* the arc of a jump like this. Editor: It’s amazing how such a technical approach can create something so poetic. I see the human form deconstructed, the layers of movement as ghostly apparitions. Curator: The high contrast emphasizes the physical strain but also, dare I say, a sense of liberation from gravity. Editor: Yes, the white figure against that black abyss feels transcendent, an ascent that leaves behind the mundane. I’m left pondering this image, what can be revealed in these slices of a single, passing moment. Curator: Exactly. The layers suggest a story, a journey.