40 Times The World Said 'No, Thank You' To Gravity, As Seen On This Group
By: Peter Selinger (Bored Panda)
Something for photographers on NT. A little serendipity, odd happenstance, and staged silliness. They're all just for fun.
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S E E D E D C O N T E N T
You don't need to know much about photography to know it goes hand-in-hand with gravity. And we ain't talking about trying to capture your little sibling or significant other in mid-air for that Instagrammable pic (we've all been there). We're talking about turning the world on its axis with a simple click of your camera.
With over 43,000 mind-bending photography enthusiasts, the Confusing Gravity group is a go-to place for pics that make dear old Newton look silly and our brains confused. From people standing on top of filing cabinets as if it's some sort of skyscraper to vehicles hurtling through the air, we're still not sure what kind of cheat codes these photographers were using. But the results, mind-boggling as they are, speak for themselves.
Before we go on and speak about gravity-defying photographs, let's take a step back and look at the origins of motion photography. In a bold move back in 1872, Leland Stanford, the former governor of California and a savvy railroad tycoon who would go on to establish Stanford University, made a daring decision.
Fueling an ongoing debate whether, during its gait, all four of a horse's hooves are simultaneously off the ground, he sought to settle the score once and for all. His solution? Hiring the eccentric English photographer, Eadweard Muybridge, to capture the elusive truth.
Muybridge, driven by this audacious challenge, embarked on a six-year quest to unravel the mysteries of the stallion movement. In a groundbreaking experiment, he strategically positioned twelve trip-wire cameras along a racetrack, aiming to freeze every stride of a galloping horse.
After a while, he had it: a fleeting instant when the majestic beast soared through the air, liberated from earthly constraints, with not a single hoof touching the ground. Perhaps the first levitation photo in the history of photography which paved the way for motion pictures.
Now that we know a silly bet propelled the way for moving pictures, let's get back to the present-day - time when technology allows us to plant cameras on pretty much anything (thanks, GoPro!) and bend the laws of gravity without using Photoshop. But what is it about these gravity-defying stills that capture our attention?
Well, for one, this style of photography may seem effortless and whimsical, but it demands meticulous planning, technical expertise, and flawless execution. A perfect balance of composition, lighting, and timing must converge to create the illusion of weightlessness. Of course, persistency also helps.
"I loved looking at someone in the air and enjoying the fact that the image told a beginning middle and end, he had to have started from somewhere and he had to have landed somewhere, a great photo showed all three moments," Mike Dempsey, LA-based photographer specializing in gravity-defying photography, explained in an interview. "I dreamed up translating the storytelling element as well as the gravity element of these photos into something that everyone could relate with."
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Odd perspectives is always a fun challenge for a photo group.
I like it!