Eadweard Muybridge, Elk trotting, 1884/86
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.