DAY 72

HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Motion Studies

TAKING A PHOTOGRAPHIC “GALLOP” POLL

It soon became apparent that photography could be an invaluable tool in the scientific study of the natural world in ways unlike other forms before it, such as sculpture and illustration. Throughout the 1860s, a number of photographers experimented with various ways to capture motion but found only partial success. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who had invented a hand-held stereoscope, captured images of pedestrians in midstride, and the studies of knee, ankle, and foot movement that he conducted later contributed to the advancement of prosthetic limbs for Civil War amputees.

However, the most prominent name in the use of photography for motion studies is Eadweard Muybridge, an Englishman renowned for his images of Yosemite. In order to settle a bet and answer an age-old question, Muybridge set out to determine whether or not, at a full gallop, a horse’s legs are ever off the ground simultaneously. After initially trying (but failing) to record a speeding horse by manually opening and closing the shutter of the camera rapidly, he succeeded by ultimately setting up 12 cameras intricately equipped with trip wires so that an individual frame was exposed by a passing horse on a track. (For more on Eadward Muy-bridge, see page 160.) —DJG

Eadward Muybridge proved in an 1878 photographic experiment that all four legs of a horse are airborne at full gallop.