Eadweard Muybridge

Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904) was an English photographer whose sequential images analyzed animal and human movement. His experiments helped establish motion photography and influenced the development of cinema.

Zoopraxiscope: An early device that projected moving images from rotating glass discs bearing sequential pictures. Muybridge invented it to project motion sequences derived from his animal photographs.
Leland Stanford: An American industrialist, racehorse owner, and governor of California who supported motion studies. Stanford commissioned the horse experiments that brought Muybridge’s motion photography to prominence.
Animal Locomotion: A multi-volume 1887 publication of sequential photographs documenting people and animals in motion. Muybridge’s largest published study extended his experiments beyond the galloping horse.
Motion picture: A sequence of images displayed rapidly to create the illusion of continuous movement. Muybridge’s experiments helped make projected photographic motion a practical subject of invention.
Chronophotography: A photographic method that records successive phases of movement in a sequence of images. Muybridge’s studies are among the best-known uses of photography to analyze motion.
Palo Alto Stock Farm: A California horse-breeding farm established by Leland Stanford, later the site of motion-photography experiments. Muybridge’s 1878 horse photographs were made at Stanford’s farm.
The Attitudes of Animals in Motion: An 1881 book presenting photographs made by Muybridge to document animal movement. This publication brought his sequential studies to a wider scientific and artistic audience.
Thomas Eakins: An American painter and photographer known for realistic depictions of the human body and movement. Eakins collaborated with Muybridge on motion photography and studied its implications for art.
Dry plate photography: A photographic process using light-sensitive gelatin emulsion on glass plates, prepared before exposure. Its convenience helped Muybridge make rapid exposures in his motion studies.
California State Library: A public research library in California that preserves historical collections and records. Before his motion studies, Muybridge worked as a bookseller in San Francisco, where the library’s history connects to his early career.

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