This jumping man comes from an album I recently received from a military historian friend. It belonged to the well-to-do Foley family from North County Dublin and dates from between 1900 and 1920. It is full of great snapshots like this one which is part of a series taken at some sort of camp along the coast of Dublin. The ability to freeze action was called ‘instant photography’ and it became a staple of amateur practice in the early decades of the 20th Century. It reminds me of the iconic Lartigue photograph of his cousin ‘flying’. This is featured in the BBC’s documentary series The Genius of Photography.
