The life and

creations
of
Eadweard
Muybridge

Only photography has been able

to divide human life into a series
of moments, each of them has the
value of a complete existence
- Eadweard Muybridge

Introduction
Edward James Muggeridge who later
changed his name to Eadweard
Muybridge. Was born on April 9th, 1830
in Kingston upon Thames, United
Kingdom. Muybridge was a brilliant and
eccentric photographer, gained his fame
by taking photographs of human and
animal movements impossible to the
human eye. He died of prostate cancer
on May 8, 1904, at his birthplace
Kingston upon Thames, United
Kingdom.

Introduction Cont.
Muybridges Family
Muybridge was born into the family of John and Susan Muggeridge with his three
brothers. His father worked as a coal and grain merchant. His father died in 1843 in which
Susan carried out the business.
At the age of 20, Muybridge emigrated to New York then to San Francisco then back to
England and started photography.
He married Flora Shallcross Stone in 1872 and had a son named
Florado Helios Muybridge. They later got a divorce in April 1875.
She then died in July of 1875 and Muybridge gave his son to a
Protestant orphanage. In 1944, Florado was hit by a car and died
age of 70.

at the

http://www.moderskeppet.se/live/fotohistoriens-pionjarereadweard-muybridge/

Introduction Cont.
Education
Muybridge began work at the University of Pennsylvania in 1883 he photographed animals
from the local zoo, as well as university faculty and students,
all actively engaged in walking, galloping, flying, working, playing, fighting, dancing, or
other actions incidental to every-day life, which illustrate motion and the play of muscles,
- Muybridge
Muybridge gave lectures about animal locomotion in order to further prove,
to disbelievers, that the horses feet do come off the ground while running.
Some people did not believe that it was possible for the horse to be in the
positions that it was in. He proved this with his invention of the
zoopraxiscope.
Most of the photographs that Muybridge took between 1884 to
1887 were put into the 1887 portfolio Animal Locomotion:
An Electro-Photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of
Animal Movements. He finalized his studies in 1887.

http://www.amazon.com/Muybridges-Complete-Human-AnimalLocomotion/dp/0486237931

Introduction cont.
Early influences
As a young man, he immigrated to the United States where he became a bookseller in San
Francisco. Muybridge had no plans of becoming a photographer at this time, let alone
becoming a pioneer of motion pictures.
In 1860, while travelling back to England on a buying trip for his books,
Muybridge encountered a near fatal accident that seriously injured
his head. This caused Muybridge to be forced back to england in
order to recover. This accident caused him to go into a more creative
phase in his life. He took up photography in England after he got better
and became a proficient photographer.
When he returned to San Francisco seven years later, he was not
a bookseller, but rather a professional photographer.

http://blogs.artinfo.com/modernartnotes/2010/06/a-man-qaweston-naef-on-eadweard-muybridge-part-one/

Style & Technique

Eadweard developed a very fast shutter speed and used state of the art
techniques of his day to show sequences of movement. He invented the
Zoopraxiscope to project images of successive phases of movement
which were obtained through multiple cameras. He lined up a set of
cameras to simultaneously take photographs of the same moving
object. Using this method he was able to capture his famous image of a
running horse with all four hooves off the ground.

Style & Technique

His goal was to break motion down into the simplest component process and photograph a
sequence of rapid images.
Muybridge devised a fast camera shutter and used a new, more sensitive photographic
process, both of which dramatically reduced exposure time and produced crisp images of
moving objects.
In 1877 he returned to California and resumed his experiments in motion photography,
using a battery of from 12 to 24 cameras and a special shutter he developed that gave an
exposure of 2/1000 of a second. This helped prove his statement that all four legs of a
horse lift off the ground at the same time in one moment.
Muybridge borrowed dozens of exotic animals from the Philadelphia Zoo, including
elephants, antelopes and zebras. He set up as many as 30 cameras and took over a
Philadelphia racetrack. He shot them strolling, cantering and running on the track. He
photographed people wrestling athletes, legless amputees struggling onto chairs,
ordinary folks opening umbrellas. His idea was to break down motion so it could be
studied by scientists.

What drove Muybridges

passion?
Because of Eadweard Muybridge reputation increasing, the governor of California at that time,
Leland Stanford, asked him to determine if a horse's hooves really came off the ground as it ran.
Starting in 1872, Muybridge began taking fast, repetitive pictures of horses running. Through the
pictures, he realized his shutter speed was too slow for him to capture the horses hooves. So with
funding from the governor, Muybridge was able to create a camera with a fast enough shutter
speed in which he was able to prove that all of the hooves of the horse do come off the ground
while running.

http://www.eadweardmuybridge.co.uk/

What drove Muybridges

passion?
After proving that horses hooves do come off the ground as it runs, he continued to shoot
the same type of photographs with more animals and also with people. Muybridge
continued research at University of Pennsylvania starting in 1883. Within the next few
years after, he ended up shooting thousands of photographs which he put into books. He
had eight books by the end of his life and also toured Europe and North America with
them and describing his technique and his invention, the Zoopraxiscope.

http://history-is-made-at-night.blogspot.com/2010/12/eadweard-muybridge.html

Challenges Muybridge
encounter
Muybridge was also a successful bookseller. In 1860 he sailed to
England to get books and he missed his boat and went to San Francisco
instead. This resulted in him getting severe head injuries and he went
to New York City for more treatment which he ended up staying at for
a year until he could sail to England.
Muybridges wife had an affair.
He had prostate cancer and that was a big challenge for him throughout
his life from the time he discovered it.

Notable Achievements
Muybridge invented something incredible, the Zoopraxiscope.
The Zoopraxiscope was created in 1879. It was considered the first
movie projector because, it was a device that was able to display
motion pictures. He then developed a new multi-lens camera. It
produced a high-speed study into movement of humans and
animals.
Muybridge's work stood out in his time for many reasons. He was
an outlandish character who was very flamboyant/odd. He was
reminded of Walt Whitman because of his beard that reached to
his chest. Eadweard Muybridge was different from other
photographers because he was able to capture various motions in
about 10 shots. No one was able to do so before he came along.

Muybridges influence on
people
French Surrealist artist Marcel
Duchamp's 1912 painting Nude
Descending a Staircase, No. 2, is said to
be inspired by stop-motion photography,
like that of Muybridge's Woman Walking
Downstairs from his 1887 picture series.

Many of Muybridge's stills served

as inspirations for Francis Bacons
own work, who always drew from
photographs. Muybridge's studies
of motion drew countless
inspiration.

Muybridges influence on
people
LeWitt's 'Muybridge II' (1965) is a
10ft-long rectangular black box with
10 peep-holes. Look inside and you
see a photograph of a figure coming
towards you. As you move on to the
next peep-hole, the photograph
changes: the figure is getting closer. It
gets closer and closer until, at the
final hole, you're faced with the
figure's navel. 'Muybridge's work was
entirely Conceptual,' says LeWitt.

The bands U2 and the Crystal

Method have based music videos on
Muybridge's work.

Muybridges influence on
people
Thomas Eakins painting William Rush
and his Model (190708).Eakins
portrays Rush helping the model
down from her podium. To paint the
nude he deferred to one of
Muybridges studies (Woman walking
downstairs, throwing scarf over her
shoulders, c. 1885), changing it only a
little to suit his purpose.

John Travoltas bouncy-groovy stroll

that kick-starts Saturday Night Fever
(1977) Makes you think of Muybridge
s study on how men walk.

Muybridge's goal
Muybridges main goal was to capture continuous movement
of animals and humans. He studied the movement of animals
and humans. Muybridge wanted his viewers to experience the
movement of the subjects he captured. One of Muybridges
most famous experiments was the Sallie Gardneer at a Gallop.
The purpose of this was to prove that horses hooves do indeed
come off the ground during the time of a trot.

And he killed someone!

Along with Muybridge's achievements he also conducted
more a personal one. His wife Flora was not being faithful to
her artistic husband and was sleeping with a Mister Harry
Larkyns, a drama critic who had created a drama between
Mr and Mrs Muybridge. In a jealous rage Eadweard did what
every regular man would do. He tracked Mr Larkyns down
and shot him. Having had a stagecoach accident he used that
is his defense claiming it had changed him and he also tried
the insanity plea. In the end he was acquitted because he
committed a justifiable homicide. This little bump in the
road just makes this photographer an even more interesting
person to study and talk about.

Fun facts
Muybridge suffered a severe head injury after a near-fatal fall from a
stagecoach in 1860. He was in a coma for four days. For three months after
waking from the coma, he suffered from double vision, and couldn't hear,
smell, or taste.
Composer Philip Glass's 1982 opera, the Photographer, was based on
Muybridge's murder trial.
He had his son put in an orphanage, he didnt believe that it was his son
because of his wife's poor choices.

He created two panoramas of San Francisco, one seventeen feet long.

After finding out about his wife and her lover, Muybridge
rode thirty miles horseback to go kill her lover.

Muybridge was a close acquaintance with Thomas Edison.

More Facts
Eadweard sued leland Stanford for $50,000 for
ruining his reputation in 1878

At the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair, Muybridges Zoopraxiscope earned so

little interest that the exhibition closed early.
.

His carriage was fitted out as a mobile darkroom called

Helios Flying Studio, bearing the logo of a camera with wings

Adris Reflection
Well, Eadweard Muybridge was one weird guy, But Ive learned form his style
and technique. I think his approach to photography was definitely ahead of
his time but they worked. I learned to look at things and think of their
movement before they even start to move. This is a good strategy to have
when you are trying to picture your photography and map it out in your
mind. After learning about his acquittal from murder kind of makes me think
you sometimes have to take risks, because Hey, Maybe you will be
acquitted. He stood out in a way that was very present both in his life and
work. He was not afraid to photograph strange poses and movements
because he knew it would make an effect on people. Muybridge was a very
effective artist who sparked so many different reactions from the public.
Because of his odd photos and interesting life Eadweard Muybridge will be a
photographer that will not be easily forgotten and will continue to shock and
amaze people for decades to come.

Carleys Reflection
When I first started this project I knew nothing or even heard of
Muybridge. Slowly I learned that he was a pretty weird guy and
photographer. Muybridge changed his name, at least, three or four
times before sticking with Eadweard Muybridge. Muybridge shot a lot
of photos of animals and people. In these photos, they would be
running and doing other various motions. He invented the
Zoopraxiscope to project images of successive phases of movement
which were obtained by multiple cameras. Later on, he became an
inspiration towards all.
When I first started shooting in his style I had a hard time because
the photos would be too blurry or not right for my taste. I later on, shot
some photos in the gym and they turned out okay. I am still having a
hard time with this project but I hope later on Ill get the hang of it.

Rileys reflection
Before this project, I had never even heard about Eadweard Muybridge. From this project,
I learned about his life and about his technique. I realized that the reason he started
photographing like this started with the horse. He need to prove that the horses hooves do
come off the ground and to prove that, he made his own invention. Trying to photograph
in Muybridge's style was pretty easy for me. Finding interesting things to photograph for
this assignment was what I found difficult. But that made it interesting because I had to
look at everything seeing if I could use it in some way for this. I like the format that the
pictures are put in. How the photos are put next to each other so you can see the
progression throughout. Overall, I enjoyed this project because it was challenging and
something different keeping it interesting.

Natalies reflection
During this project I learned a lot about human and animal
movement and about Eadweard Muybridges life and his style of
shooting moving pictures. Eadweard Muybridge proved that you could
make things look like they're moving in a series of pictures. While I was
shooting in his style I felt like it was very easy to get the hang of since
all I was doing was letting the camera do its magic. The one thing I
found difficult was actually figuring out what to do in front of the
camera. I really liked this project it was very easy to learn/do and I
liked that you could be creative with your movement in your pictures.

Keridans reflection
Eadweard Muybridge was full of a lot of interesting things. Throughout
his life and his career he had many things happen that attract attention
and that are interesting. I think he was a really significant man because
of his creations for the photography world. His photos are interesting
because theyre a lot different than others and I think that helps him
stand out as his own person. I think he has taught people how to be
themselves and to use their creativity. To me, hes a cool guy because
he has done a lot to change the photography world and he was always
himself.

Keridans picture

Katies reflection
This assignment was interesting. I had trouble getting my camera to
cooperate, but I feel like my picture came out okay. I liked that when
the pictures were in the collage I could see the motion actually
happening. If I were to do this again I would have to get my camera to
focus on the moving subject more. Muybridge perfected this technique
and his photographs are amazing. My photos reflect his goal in
showing step by step motion of a moving object, even though my
subject was not as interesting as his were. This assignment was a
challenge but I enjoy my final product.

katies picture

Taylors reflection
Learning about Eadweard Muybridge was a very interesting task. Even
though he was a slightly strange man, I did learn a lot from him. He created
and did things that most people of his time would never think to do. He
created a machine (Zoopraxiscope) that changed the way movement
photography is looked at. While looking at his photos it was like I was almost
moving with them because, he captured the movement perfectly and had
perfect timing. Since Muybridge was so outgoing and odd he set an example
that its okay to be different. He made people believe that doing this
differently is the way to go and that being yourself is always the right thing.
All in all, he is a magnificent photographer in my eyes.

Taylors picture

Citations
"Eadweard Muybridge Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

"Zoopraxiscope - Google Search." Zoopraxiscope. Google, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

"Eadweard Muybridge Collections." - Muybridge : Image & Context. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.
"Zoopraxiscope." Wikimedia Commons. N.p., n.d. Web.
"Eadweard Muybridge." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.
"QUOTES BY EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE | A-Z Quotes." A-Z Quotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.
Schwendener, Martha. "Exposing the Foundations of Documented Motion." The New York Times. The New York Times,
24 May 2014. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

"WildFilmHistory - Eadweard Muybridge." WildFilmHistory - Eadweard Muybridge. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

Citations
"7 Incredible Things You Didn't Know About Eadweard Muybridge." PCMAG. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

"The Science of Movement: Eadweard Muybridge | Europeana Blog." Europeana Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

"Eadweard Muybridge - Motion Photographer." About.com Inventors. About.com, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

"Muybridge: The Man Who Made Pictures Move." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

"COMPLEAT EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE - CHRONOLOGY 1883-1888." COMPLEAT EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE CHRONOLOGY 1883-1888. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

"The Man Who Stopped Time." Stanford Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

Citations
"David Campany." David Campany. N.p., 26 Feb. 2013. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

"The Everyday Writer with 2009 MLA and 2010 APA Updates." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

"Cultural Connections." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

"The Everyday Writer with 2009 MLA and 2010 APA Updates." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.