The study of motion: A brief showcase of Eadward’s Muybridge work.
Eadweard Muybridge was a pioneering photographer who revolutionized the study of movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His groundbreaking work succeeded in capturing the movement of humans and animals and advanced the field of biomechanics, having a profound impact on the development of photography and film.
Muybridge was born in England in 1830 and moved to the United States in his twenties. He became interested in photography in the 1860s and began experimenting with still photographs. In 1872, he was hired by Leland Stanford, the founder of Stanford University, to study the galloping of horses.
Muybridge’s study consisted of placing multiple cameras along a track and simultaneously triggering the shutter when the horse passed by. This technique helped Muybridge to sequence the movement of the horses in detail, achieving the first sequence of rearranged images in a moving image.
The collaboration with Stanford led to the publication of the book “Animal Locomotion,” which contained more than 20,000 photographs of animals and people in motion. A book that has been praised for both its scientific contribution and artistic beauty.
