Muybridge in motion: Travels in art, psychology and neurology

Abstract

Eadweard J. Muybridge (1830–1904) stands as a leading figure of nineteenth-century photography.¹ Best known for his artistic and scientific application of photography to capture animals in motion, Muybridge is also recognized as an ingenious inventor and one of the finest landscape photographers of the West. 2 Most formidable amongst his landscape photography is his interpretation of Yosemite Valley. He, along with Charles Weed and Carleton Watkins, was one of the first to venture into Yosenlite, capture its magnificence, and bring it back to the general public. With respect to his inventive genius, Muybridge subnlitted patents for many of his innovations, including the shutter system to capture motion and one of the earliest motion picture projectors, which he called the zoopraxiscope. This device consisted of a lamp, lens and glass disk. To animate his images, Muybridge mounted on the disk impressions of his sequential shots of a trotting horse. When Muybridge rotated the disk in the device, observers could actually watch the horse in motion.