Milk Drop Coronet, an ultra-high-speed photograph of the splash of a drop of milk (1957)

Milk Drop Coronet is a high-speed photograph taken in 1957 by the American engineer and photographer Harold "Doc" Edgerton. It shows a drop of milk striking a surface and forming a crown-shaped splash, captured using Edgerton's stroboscope-based flash photography techniques. A professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Edgerton had pioneered the use of extremely short flashes of light to photograph the motion of electric motors, later applying the technique to phenomena such as flying insects, bullets, and splashing liquids. He had experimented with milk-drop images since 1932 and produced a similar photograph in 1936. Milk Drop Coronet became one of the best-known examples of high-speed photography, widely exhibited in museums and included in Time's list of the 100 most influential photographs.

Photographer: Harold Edgerton