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xpatriate Englishman Eadweard Muybridge (18301904),
a brilliant and eccentric photographer, gained worldwide fame photographing
animal and human movement imperceptible to the human eye. Hired by railroad
baron Leland Stanford in 1872, Muybridge used photography to prove that
there was a moment in a horses gallop when all four hooves were
off the ground at once. He spent much of his later career at the University
of Pennsylvania, producing thousands of images that capture progressive
movements within fractions of a second.
Freeze Frame explores the famous photographs
of animal and human locomotion that Muybridge made at the University of
Pennsylvania between 1884 and 1887. For 100 years, historians considered
these photographs to be scientific studies of the body in motion. The
Museums collection of Muybridges working proofs, however,
suggests a more complex interpretation. The proofs, never before exhibited,
were recently rediscovered and are shown here for the first time.
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Ascending and descending stairs
Animal Locomotion Plate 504, 1887
Collotype |