Wellcome Library material displayed at Tate Britain exhibition
14 September 2010
Muybridge is best remembered today for his work on animal locomotion. For the first time, by using multiple cameras, he showed that a horse moving at speed has all four feet off the ground at once (an issue that was the subject of much debate at this time). In the 1870s, seeking a method of showing such images, Muybridge invented the zoopraxiscope, a machine that displayed images as moving sequences. It is considered by some to be the first movie projector.
Although he was born and died in England, Muybridge spent much of his life in the United States. In the late 1860s, he established himself as a photographer in San Francisco, specialising in landscape subjects. In particular, he photographed the rugged vistas of Yosemite Valley in California. Later photographs would include other images from across the American continent, including urban panoramas and views of Alaska and Guatemala.
These two aspects of Muybridge's work - his landscape photography and his studio-based motion studies - are brought together in the exhibition. Fittingly, the three works loaned from the Wellcome Library tie in with these two themes. 'Work on a coffee plantation in Guatemala' (1877) (Wellcome Library no. 25225i) is a set of wood engravings by GH Andrews based on Muybridge's photographs of the region. Along side, is Muybridge’s'A woman sitting naked on a chair and smoking' (Wellcome Library no. 27760i) and 'A naked man with hemiplegia walking with a stick' (Wellcome Library no. 572329i). These two prints were taken from 'Animal Locomotion' (1878), Muybridge's magnum opus on human and animal movement.
The exhibition illustrates the range of Muybridge's art and also seeks to show the continuing relevance of this most pioneering of photographers.
Eadweard Muybridge, Tate Britain, Wednesday 8 September 2010-Sunday 16 January 2011.
Image: A woman sitting naked on a chair and smoking, collotype, 1887; by Eadweard Muybridge. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.
