ABSTRACT
Since the fi rst photographs, images recording motion-blur have both vexed and fascinated photographers and viewers alike. Blurring motion was not a creative discoverythroughout the medium’s early years, photographers (and their subjects) had to go to great lengths to avoid it because of the extremely slow light sensitivity of available mediabut it was to many an interesting occurrence, ripe with visual potential. Once media sensitivity increased to allow blur to be avoided, the degree of freezing or blurring motion could also be controlled, and photographers began to consciously utilize shutter speeds as an aesthetic and communicative tool. As they did, they and visually literate viewers began to realize the myriad levels on which the degree of freezing or blurring time could aff ect the visual character of their subject matter and infuse potential meaning into images. Indeed, like focus, motion in a photograph, can
be recorded on a continuum of nearly innumerable points ranging from completely frozen to unrecognizable blur; for photographers it is important to understand that where you place your image content on that continuum creates specifi c, unique photographic meaning (Shore, 1998, p. 35).
