A History of Photography in USC Libraries CollectionsMain MenuIntroductionThe Changing Technology of PhotographyPhotography as an Art and SciencePhotography and American HistoryPhotography and Visual CommunicationSay Cheese: Vernacular Photography and IdentityStudent SunPrints
Elk trotting
1media/Elk_trotting.jpg2020-11-11T16:49:40-08:00Curtis Fletcher3225f3b99ebb95ebd811595627293f68f680673e381512Elk trotting. This is plate 692, captioned "Elk trotting".; CITE AS "Eadweard Muybridge. Animal locomotion: an electro-photographic investigation of consecutive phases of animal movements. 1872-1885. USC Digital Library, 2010."; CITE ORIGINAL SOURCE AS "Eadweard Muybridge. Animal locomotion: an electro-photographic investigation of consecutive phases of animal movements. 1872-1885 / published under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania. Plates. The plates printed by the Photo-Gravure Company. Philadelphia, 1887."plain2020-12-02T21:09:16-08:00USC Digital Library2 p. of plates; 1 video file : digital, mp3 file; 20 framesMuybridge, EadweardCurtis Fletcher3225f3b99ebb95ebd811595627293f68f680673e
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1media/Elk_trotting.jpg2020-11-17T11:36:38-08:00Eadweard Muybridge, Elk trotting, 1884/864Edweard Muybridge’s "Animal Locomotion" is a collection of photographs centered around the study of human and animal movement.plain2020-11-21T18:39:27-08:00
Edweard Muybridge’s Animal locomotion: an electro-photographic investigation of consecutive phases of animal movements is a collection of photographs centered around the study of human and animal movement. Muybridge used multiple cameras to capture the movements of animals and humans from various angles and at multiple points within their sequence, resulting in a collage-like series of photographs. Notice how the staged background of the images taken of this elk consists of a dark grid on top of a plain white background. This was done to allow the scientific measurement of the motion of the elk through these photographs. Muybridge’s photographic method and presentation not only gave viewers a medium to analyze movement, but they also remind us that the human eye often misses key details. Artists utilized Muybridge’s photographs as references to paint and draw animals in motion more more accurately. In this way, his work serves as data used as an aid for the traditional artist. His discoveries and documentation of locomotion brought art and science together. This sparked an era of questioning initial human speculation, turning to science as well as photography for answers to enduring questions about the natural world.