Muybridge: Science as Art and Art as Scientific Study
April 5, 2012
Try going a week without movies or television.
Or, maybe try a day.
Now to take it a step further, imagine this: your exposure to moving images is basically zero.
Getting your mind cast in that frame will make the iconic photographic work of Eadweard Muybridge look like magic.
That’s how it seemed at the time.
In the 1870s, Muybridge was hired to use his photographic skills and ingenuity to settle an old argument. Without the aid of cameras, no one could tell if all four of a galloping horse’s hooves were ever off the ground all at once. Using numerous cameras placed along a pre-determined path, each lens was tripped to open as the animal ran past.
Moving pictures had not been invented. The ability to create a dynamic movement through still images allowed a whole new level of vision, understanding and insight; people could now see things that they otherwise could not.
The final verdict? Horses’ hooves do all leave the ground at one point in their gallop.
These photographs and the possible applications this technique held were a boon to science. Today, these images are regarded as a fantastic combination of science and art.
After the initial horse-galloping photographs, Muybridge worked with the University of Pennsylvania on his influential work, Animal Locomotion. This book includes over 700 images; less than 200 are of animals. The vast majority are of humans performing various tasks, their movements recorded from different angles.
– Teresa Gregorio, Museum Monitor / Information Officer, McMaster Museum of Art
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