Beyond the Finish Line: Images, Evidence, and the History of the Photo-Finish by Jonathan Finn

Author:Jonathan Finn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MQUP
Published: 2020-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

4.1 Photo-finish of women’s 80m hurdles, 1948 Olympic Games in London.

The revolving drum mentioned in the 1948 Report follows the practice discussed in chapter 3 in relation to Barber’s and Petri’s attempts to create a complete racing record. Whereas Barber and Petri created a board on which identifying information was written, the Race Finish Recording Company equipment used in London made its record by means of a spinning drum, timed with the speed of film in the slit camera. As shown in Figure 4.1, the drum for this particular race included “Olympic 48” and the numbers 4, 8, 5, and 1, with 4 and 8 corresponding to the date of the race, 4 August 1948. This effectively highlights a central role of the photo-finish: to provide a documentary record of the event. The use of the drum is also important as it foreshadows an issue that would become central to timing and imaging services in sports: sponsorship and advertising. In subsequent games, OMEGA was able to reproduce their company name in photo-finish images by including it on the rotating drum.

The Race Finish Recording Company continued to provide photo-finish services for Olympic Games in partnership with OMEGA. Their collaboration at the 1948 Games gave rise to the first complete photo-finish camera in 1949, the Racend OMEGA, which combined a quartz clock and slit camera. The Racend OMEGA was used again at the 1952 Games in Helsinki and was detailed in OMEGA’S contract proposal for the Games (Figure 4.2). As with the 1948 Games, OMEGA provided all timing services. The Olympic Report includes a section, “Time-Keeping and Photo-Finish,” which again stresses the uniqueness of the photo-finish:

The camera with attached time-keeping device (Racend OMEGA Timer) used in the Olympic Stadium was similar to that used in London in 1948. This apparatus enables the order in which competitors finished to be established with absolute accuracy even though the human eye could detect no space between them. The picture taken by the camera resembles an ordinary photograph. Nevertheless, in it each competitor has been individually photographed at the instant he crossed the line. In reality, no such over-all situation ever existed as that shown in the photograph recorded by the camera.13

The Helsinki Report is illustrative of a larger trend in the treatment of the photo-finish during the middle decades of the twentieth century. There was a relatively nuanced discussion of the photo-finish as a unique visual form and as something that was not a traditional photograph but nonetheless had clear photographic properties. The uncertainty about what, exactly, the photo-finish was is evidenced by its slow and unequal adoption as a form of evidence in sport. As noted in the 1948 Olympic Report, “The I.A.A.F. [International Association of Athletics Federations] has so far not officially sanctioned the times recorded by the Racend OMEGA Timer, so that the times for the scoresheets are still taken with watches.”14 And so as with its adoption into horse racing during the opening decades of the twentieth century, the photo-finish was not quickly or easily accepted as a decision-making tool.

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