The Stories Behind These Iconic Photos

Milk Drop Coronet, 1957

This one-of-a-kind photo of a milk drop wasn’t accidental; it was taken by a physicist who engineered it in his MIT lab. The photo was taken in 1957 by Harold Edgerton, a professor in Electrical Engineering. With this photo, Edgerton invented stroboscopic photography, and he claims to have done so completely incidentally.

He wanted to be able to capture quick motion using a succession of light flashes. This stop-motion photograph of a milk drop has revolutionized the filed of photography and film making, which is only part of what makes it so important. The second, and more obvious reason, is the exceptional aesthetics of the photo.