Eadweard Muybridge

Eadweard Muybridge was born in Kingston upon Thames, England, in 1830 and moved to the American West Coast in the 1850s.^*1 After working as a bookseller and publisher in California, he turned to photography and earned recognition for large-format landscape photographs of Yosemite Valley.^*2 In 1872, at the commission of businessman Leland Stanford, he began work on photographs of a galloping horse, and in 1878 succeeded at the Sacramento Valley experiment in capturing sequential images with multiple cameras.^*3 Building on these results, from 1884 he undertook a large-scale research project on animal and human locomotion under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania, publishing the eleven-volume Animal Locomotion in 1887.^*4 In his later years he returned to England and died in Kingston in 1904. The University of Pennsylvania's exhibition materials convey the full scope of this research, with a large collection of photographs, documents, and letters preserved.^*5

Time Decomposed by Multiple Cameras

The historical significance of Muybridge's motion photographs lies not only in proving that a horse lifts all four legs from the ground simultaneously. Arranging multiple cameras at equal intervals and linking threads to shutters to fire at set intervals created a new visual apparatus that recorded motion as a series of still images along a time axis.^*6 The Library of Congress described this as cameras making visible "movements that the human eye could not capture," positioning the method as an expansion of photography's possibilities.^*7 The crucial point is that, unlike conventional photography which captured a single instant, a series of photographs visualized the structure of time — a fundamental shift. This distinction becomes clear in comparison with Étienne-Jules Marey, who superimposed multiple exposures onto a single plate.^*8 Where Marey analytically condensed the flow of time into a single image, Muybridge spread time across multiple frames, presenting it to the viewer as a sequential experience. Both photographed "invisible motion," but their methodologies were contrasting, anticipating the later divergence between cinema and still photography.^*9

University of Pennsylvania and Animal Locomotion

The research from 1884 onward developed from individual exploration into a collective project embedded in a university institution. The University of Pennsylvania Archives holds enormous quantities of photographs, documents, and correspondence from this research, showing that Animal Locomotion was simultaneously a work of art and a reference collection for measurement, classification, and education.^*10 Penn Libraries positions this collection as "the central body of material for Muybridge research," presenting it as a practice that crosses the boundary between science and art.^*11 The 781 plates in the eleven volumes encompass nearly every bodily action — walking, running, jumping, throwing — each photographed against a ruler and grid backdrop.^*12 This metrological frame was a visual apparatus that opened the body to a complex domain spanning medicine, anatomy, sports science, and art education. A Penn Today feature conveys that this research proceeded in close exchange with scientists and artists of the era.^*13 PhotoAnthology notes the scale of the referential influence Animal Locomotion has had on subsequent photographers, scientists, and artists.^*14

The Zoopraxiscope and the Art of Showing

Muybridge's practice did not stop at producing sequential photographs. Around 1879 he developed the zoopraxiscope, and by tracing sequential photographs onto glass discs and projecting them optically, he succeeded in showing still images as motion.^*15 The original zoopraxiscope and seventy glass discs held at Kingston Museum are officially positioned as "testament to his pioneering work in early moving-image projection."^*16 He lectured across Europe and America, combining sequential photographs with projection demonstrations to operate as a cultural practitioner spanning photography, science, and spectacle. The fact that documents relating to the University of Pennsylvania are also held by the Smithsonian Archives of American Art demonstrates the multi-institutional reach of this practice.^*17 The Animal Locomotion plates held by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History show that sequential photographs have been passed down as works of a caliber established in museum collections beyond scientific documentation.^*18 His Yosemite landscape photographs also form an important part of his practice, as demonstrated by works held at SFMOMA.^*19

Individual plates from Animal Locomotion are held by major North American museums including the Seattle Art Museum and have become established in both photography history and museum collections.^*20 The National Gallery of Art's artist page also demonstrates that his photographs function as a standard reference point in photography history.^*21 The method of placing bodies in front of a grid for decomposition and measurement is today often read critically as a modern gaze that manages and standardizes the body, and the archive held at NYU Special Collections demonstrates the multi-disciplinary scholarly interest in this research.^*22 The FUJIFILM SQUARE exhibition conveys the context of international reappraisal including reception in Japan.^*23 The Library of Congress's edition records of Animal Locomotion show that this publication has been passed down as a complex archive crossing the boundaries of science, art, and technology.^*24 The Detroit Institute of Arts also holds individual plates, demonstrating the breadth of holdings across museum collections.^*25