He proved a horse could fly

Aug. 31, 2010 - PRLog -- The pioneering British photographer Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) is the subject of a major retrospective at Tate Britain opening on 8th September. Bringing together around 150 works, this exhibition will demonstrate how Muybridge broke new ground in the emerging art form of photography.

From his iconic images of animals and humans in motion to depictions of the sublime landscapes and life of the dynamic America of the later nineteenth century, the exhibition will explore the ways in which Muybridge created and honed his remarkable images that continue to resonate powerfully with artists and photographers.

Muybridge was the first person to demonstrate that a horse lifts all its hooves in the air at the same time when it is galloping along, something that it was impossible to see with the naked eye and was proved through his method of using multiple cameras to take motion shots.  His 'time-lapsed' photographic work is fascinating and extremely useful to artists as well as photographers, showing as it does the exact position of a body and its limbs - whether animal or human - at various points when it is moving.

His classic books Animals in Motion, The Human Figure in Motion and The Male and Female Figure in Motion have been reprinted by Dover Publications and are available through Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias...; some editions contain a CD of the images which makes them even more useful for artists and designers.

Muybridge had an interesting and sometimes dramatic private life.  Born in Kingston-upon-Thames, he spent much of his life in San Francisco.  Discovering that his wife was having an affair, he shot her lover dead, but was acquitted of murder by pleading justifiable homicide.  He placed in an orphanage the son that he was convinced was his wife's lover's child, even though the boy grew up looking remarkably like Muybridge.

Composer Philip Glass's 1982 opera The Photographer is based on Muybridge's murder trial, the libretto including text from the transcript. A promotional music video of an excerpt of the opera dramatized the murder and trial and included a considerable number of Muybridge images. Kingston University, London, UK has a building named in recognition of his work as one of Britain's most influential photographers.

Dover Publications has reprinted several of Muybridge's books which are available through Amazon.  And you can get money off a huge range of photography technique books at RUBooks.