Eadweard Muybridge

Muybridge race horse animated

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Eadweard Muybridge, childhood home, Kingston

Eadweard Muybridge - Pi-Wi-Ack (Shower of Stars), Vernal Fall, 400 Feet, Valley of Yosemite - Google Art Project

Historic American Buildings Survey Photo by Muybridge, Gleason Collection San Francisco College for Women Ca. 1870 CONSTRUCTION FROM SOUTHEAST - U. S. Branch Mint, Mission and HABS CAL,38-SANFRA,5-1.

Portrait of Eadweard Muybridge seated at base of tree (1872)

Eadweard Muybridge (9 April 1830 – 8 May 1904) was an English photographer known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection. He adopted the first name Eadweard after the Saxon king and the surname Muybridge, believing it to be similarly ancient and noble. His work has had a significant influence on the development of motion picture technology and the understanding of animal and human locomotion.

Early Life

Eadweard Muybridge was born Edward James Muggeridge in Kingston upon Thames, England. He emigrated to the United States in the 1850s, where he changed his name and began a career as a professional photographer, capturing the landscapes and urban life of the American West.

Photographic Work

Muybridge's most famous work was the series of photographs of animals in motion, notably horses, which he conducted in the late 1870s at the request of Leland Stanford, the industrialist and former governor of California. Stanford sought to settle a commonly debated question of the day: whether all four feet of a horse were off the ground at the same time during a gallop. Muybridge's experiments, which involved a series of cameras triggered to capture split-second intervals, provided conclusive evidence that horses do indeed lift all four feet off the ground during a gallop.

This work led to the development of the zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the flexible perforated film strip used in cinematography. Muybridge's public demonstrations of the zoopraxiscope are considered some of the earliest instances of moving pictures.

Later Life and Legacy

Muybridge returned to England in 1894, where he continued his photographic experiments and published several books on motion, including Animals in Motion (1899) and The Human Figure in Motion (1901). He died in Kingston upon Thames in 1904.

Muybridge's work laid the groundwork for the later development of motion picture technology. His methods of sequential photography and his invention of the zoopraxiscope were significant advancements in the understanding of motion. Today, he is celebrated as a pioneer in the field of photographic studies of motion and motion-picture projection.

Controversies

Muybridge's life was not without controversy. In 1874, he was acquitted of the murder of his wife's lover on the grounds of justifiable homicide. This event and the subsequent scandal did not significantly impact his career, as he continued to receive commissions and support from prominent figures of the time.

See Also

• Photography
• Cinematography
• Leland Stanford
• Motion Picture