Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) was a British photographer whose early photographic experiments laid the foundation for modern cinema, making him known today as 'the father of the motion picture'. In 1860 Muybridge developed a keen interest in photography, but it was in 1872 when he started to consider rapid motion photography after being approached by a Californian racehorse owner, Leland Stanford. It seemed that Stanford had made a bet on the issue as to whether all four feet of a horse were off the ground at the same time while trotting. His initial results did prove that Stanford was right, but it took another series of experiments (the result of which came to be known as the first ever moving picture) and his invention of the zoopraxiscope (a device which enabled him to project his silhouettes in rapid succession onto a screen) to lead the way to further develop his studies of motion and in-motion projection.
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| The Horse in Motion (1878) |
The experiment mentioned previously is known as The Horse in Motion, also known as Sallie Gardner at a Gallop. It is a series of photographs shot in rapid succession - capturing what no human eye had ever seen: that a horse lifts all four hooves off the ground at one point in the action of running. This experiment was conducted after Muybridge, who was a pioneer not only of early photography but the science and study of movement as well, fabricated a special camera that would capture every sequence of his subjects' movements, frame by frame. By getting a horse to trigger the shutters of a bank fitted with twelve cameras, Muybridge was able to capture each movement in the process of the horse's galloping. When run together, the photographs produced the effect of a horse in motion.
WildFilmHistory. Eadweard Muybridge [online]. Available at <http://www.wildfilmhistory.org/person/180/Eadweard+Muybridge.html > [Accessed 26th October, 2013]
TATE - Eadweard Muybridge [online]. Available at <http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/eadweard-muybridge> [Accessed 26th October, 2013]
MoMa, 2013. The Collection - Eadweard Muybridge [online]. Available at <http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4192&page_number=2&template_id=6&sort_order=1 > [Accessed 26th October, 2013]
TATE - Eadweard Muybridge [online]. Available at <http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/eadweard-muybridge> [Accessed 26th October, 2013]
MoMa, 2013. The Collection - Eadweard Muybridge [online]. Available at <http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4192&page_number=2&template_id=6&sort_order=1 > [Accessed 26th October, 2013]
Image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/The_Horse_in_Motion.jpg
