Artist Research - The Passing of Time - Eadweard Muybridge

Artist Research - The Passing of Time - Eadweard Muybridge

Muybridge was born on 9th April 1830 and died on the 8th May 1904. He was an English photographer and is well known for his pioneering work in the photographic studies of motion and also for his early work in motion picture projection.

This image shows the element of motion and time combined into one which helps to make the image more effective and the motion helps to present the element of time more as the images containing motion have been taken in such a sequence that helps to portray motion throughout time. I also like how all the images are combined into one as this shows the time element. This is therefore an idea which I would look to recreate in my work.

In 1872, Leland Stanford, a business man and race-horse owner hired Muybridge for some photographic studies. He wanted to determine the question of the day which was whether or not all four feet were off the ground at the same time when the horse was trotting. In 1872, Muybridge experimented with a range of cameras and focused on photographing multiple shots of a horse trotting in sequence. His initial shots seemed to prove that Stanford was correct which therefore led to the same question being proposed about the horses leg actions during gallop. This led Stanford to want to study the gallop. Muybridge took another series of photographs on the 15th June 1878 at Stanford's Palo Alto Stock Farm. He placed numerous large glass plate cameras in a line along the edge of the track and the shutter was triggered by a thread as the horse passed by. The path was also lined with cloth sheets in order to reflect as much light as possible. He then copied the images onto a disk and transformed them to silhouette form. He then proceeded to view these images on a machine which he called a 'zoopraxiscope'.

After this, he continued his photography to create more motion photographs which this time, involved different animals which included cats, birds, deer and even an American bison. He also showed people's movement. Some of Muybridge's images have now been transformed into motion style pictures which are made up of the series of images which go through at a fast pace to give the effect of movement. 

This image shows a deer moving through a forest and is shot in a very brief time frame. I like the way that the images are all placed together to present a sort of time lapse effect. I also like the darkness of the images as this helps to create a more mysterious and dramatic effect within the series of images. I like this idea of capturing a time frame using multiple images.

I think that Muybridge would be good to use as inspiration for the topic of 'The Passing of Time' as his images can be thought to present how animals and humans move during a certain time frame. The element of time is a very important factor in Muybridge's images as they are all captured in extremely close proximity to one another and if this was not the case, the images would not present the idea of movement and would not be effective.

I like this image creates by Muybridge as I feel it is effective and shows movement well. This therefore can be used further to present how motion occurs throughout time so this therefore allows the audience to see an essence of time in the images. I think the fact that the images are in black and white also helps to make them effective as they also explore tone. I like the way that even though the images are static, they explore motion and time due to them all being combined together.