Animal Locomotion

Eadweard Muybridge’s efforts to capture animal motion with photography provides evidence of the desire to capture photographically what is invisible to the human eye. The resulting photographs had a significant influence on both scientists and artists. 

The series Animal Locomotion, published in 1887 and based on Muybridge's studies at the University of Pennsylvania, provides an example of what could be achieved with the shorter exposure times of gelatin dry plates and the photomechanical process of the collotype. But, as scholars such as Marta Braun have pointed out, the photographs required manipulation and editing to render animal motion legible. To begin examining the editorial decisions that are apparent in Muybridge's studies, consider the different actions performed by men and women in the plates featured here. Also consider how many different views of the moving body each plate includes. 

Muybridge’s photographs contributed to a discussion among artists regarding the representation of movement in painting, as seen in the work of artists Thomas Eakins and Marcel Duchamp. Muybridge’s photographs have entered the art world in other ways as well, often appearing today on the walls of art galleries. For example, some of the plates from the original 1887 series are held by the the Art Institute of Chicago.

The copy of Animal Locomotion housed in Bruce Peel Special Collections is a facsimile edition published in 1969; by that time, the series was more likely to be studied by art historians than by scientists.