Camera machine used by Eadweard Muybridge during his experiments in action photography, ca.1875
1 media/65-17967-thumb.jpg 2020-10-20T14:56:30-07:00 Curtis Fletcher 3225f3b99ebb95ebd811595627293f68f680673e 38151 2 Photograph of the camera machine used by Eadweard Muybridge during his experiments in action photography, ca.1875. A large shed is pictured at center, into which a long opening has been made. Twenty-four cameras are visible arranged inside, numbered above on the building from right to left. An apparatus of wire, track and posts is visible on the ground in front of them.; Picture File Card quotes from Beumont Newhall's History of Photography: "Strings attached to electric switches were stretched across the track--the horse, rushing past, breasted the strings and broke them, one after the other--the shutter released by an electro-magnetic control, and a series of images made.", and "Drawings from Muybridges photos were pasted on strips and viewed in a mechanism known as a Zoetrope, a precursor of motion pictures. It was a topless drum which flipped on it[s] side, mounted on a spindle so that it could be twirled. Drawings showing successive phases of action placed inside the drum, and viewed through the slits were seen one after the other, so quickly that the images merged in the mind to produce the illusion of motion. In 1880, using a similar technique with a device he [called] the Zoopraxiscope, Muybridge projected his pictures on a screen at the Cal. School of Fine Arts, San Francisco and produced the first motion pictures.". plain 2020-12-01T19:37:08-08:00 USC Digital Library circa 1875 negatives (photographic)photographic printsphotographs Muybridge, Eadweard J. Curtis Fletcher 3225f3b99ebb95ebd811595627293f68f680673eThis page is referenced by:
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2020-11-12T11:09:08-08:00
Camera battery used by Eadweard Muybridge for motion photography, ca. 1875
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This photograph from around 1875 represents a turning point in the history of photography and a breakthrough in the effort to freeze and study motion in technological images.
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2020-11-21T19:04:40-08:00
This photograph from around 1875 represents a turning point in the history of photography and a breakthrough in the effort to freeze and study motion in technological images. At first sight, this image may look like nothing more than a black-and-white snapshot of a kind of utilitarian shed. In fact, it shows a camera setup developed by English photographer Eadweard Muybridge to capture the motion of horses. This setup consisted of many cameras lined up along a track for the horses. As a horse trotted or raced by this building, it tripped wires connected to the cameras inside, which took several photographs in rapid succession. The resulting photographs captured the movement of the horse, isolated in sequential frames that revealed what the naked eye could not see. It is through these photographs that people were first able to see the moment when a horse’s hooves are tucked underneath its body and the animal is completely aloft for a brief moment. The capture of the horse in the air would not have been possible without Muybridge’s technique because photographic technology at the time was not fast enough to achieve such a task.
Eadweard Muybridge not only captured the motion of the horse, but also of other animals and humans. Some of his most notable work includes photographing both nude and clothed subjects to capture precisely how the human body moves. Muybridge also invented the zoopraxiscope, a device that shows a series of still photographs in rapid succession, creating the illusion of motion. He used this device in presentations to show the public motion as they had not seen it before. Muybridge’s stop motion technique was a turning point in the technological development of photography and was an important predecessor for the motion-picture industry.
