In the late 1800s there was quite a bit of debate about whether all four hooves of a horse are off the ground at the same time when the animals gallop. To settle the dispute, former California Gov. Leland Stanford hired Eadweard Muybridge, a well-known photographer at the time.
Trouble was, automatic shutters were in their infancy and no one had taken a photo at a fast enough speed to stop the motion of a galloping horse. In 1877, using a number of trip wires stretched across a racetrack – the galloping horse’s chest pushed the wire and opened the shutter mechanism – Muybridge was able to make a series of images that captured Stanford’s horse, Occident, in stopped motion. (See the images here) It’s true that in one of the frames all of the horse’s hooves were off the ground. More importantly, when the images were flipped through at a high rate of speed the horse could be seen again in full gallop – behold the first motion picture.
In today’s world, where innovations in technology have brought us to seemingly endless possibilities in storytelling and visual experiences, sometimes it’s in the slowing of something down that we discover something new, whether in the subject or ourselves.
I started thinking about this when I stumbled upon The New York Times Magazine’s feature “How Power Has Transformed Women’s Tennis.” The story itself is interesting, but doesn’t hold a candle to the commanding and yet delicate video and images that accompany the text. The images in “Women who Hit Very Hard,” photographed by Dewey Nicks, are a kind of high fashion action image. The split-second moments and the glossy and smoky lighting are awesome. No trip wires necessary with today’s technology though.
But the videos – “The Beauty of the Power Game,” directed by Nicks and produced by NYT Magazine – are what captured me. The athletes are more than impressive as they are slowed to a fluid crawl, which truly emphasizes the power behind their swing. The music and the lighting add to the ballet like mixture of elegance and power.
The grace in the slow motion and the impact of the still images also remind me of how important a still image can be. Technology can be a whirlwind of video and popups and ads and noise. But it’s when we slow things down – or stop them all together – we get a real chance to meditate on something, take it in and let it affect us.
Featured tennis players are: Kim Clijsters, Serena Williams, Elena Dementieva, Jelena Jankovic, Smantha Stosur, Victoria Azarenka and Vera Zvonareva.
Read the article, “How Power Has Transformed Women’s Tennis,” by Michael Kimmelman.
Watch the videos, “The Beauty of the Power Game,” directed by Dewey Nicks and produced by The New York Times Magazine.
See the images, “Women Who Hit Very Hard,” by Dewey Nicks.