Animal Locomotion
[2][3] Published in July 9, 1887, the chronophotographic series comprised 781 collotype plates, each containing up to 36 pictures of the different phases of a specific motion of one subject (over 20,000 images in total).
Muybridge used these to illustrate his lectures that were presented to audiences in the U.S. and Europe, marking his contribution to photography and film in relation to the "experience of time within modernity.
"[6][7] In a 1885 news report, the photographer stated that his interest in animal movement was inspired by observing an eagle flying in the Yosemite Valley in California some years prior.
I was convinced that individual feather movements upheld and propelled the bird, and I can prove by the negative plates of the eagle whose flight we photographed last Thursday that my conclusion was correct."
[8] In 1883, Muybridge met with William Pepper and J.B. Lippincott to discuss a plan for a scientific study focused on the analysis of animal and human movement.
[7] The commission was appointed in March 1884 and included the University's professors Pepper, Joseph Leidy, George Frederick Barker, Lewis M. Haupt and emeritus Harrison Allen, as well as Thomas Eakins and Edward Hornor Coates of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
The huge body of work was thought to be of everlasting importance to science and art and it would take years to examine all the material critically.
[14] Published plates with exotic species include Capybara Walking depicting the world's largest rodent,[15][16] Ostrich Running[17] (also printed as a cyanotype)[18] and American Bison Cantering,[19][11] The pictures of thoroughbred horses were made at the Gentlemen's Driving Park in Philadelphia.
Muybridge therefore developed a circuit-breaker for making the successive electrical contacts automatically and at equal intervals, long or short, as desired.
[23] The classification and order of the subjects suggests a hierarchy from nude human males down to chickens,[24] following the Christian concept of the Great chain of being.
[30] Many of the plates aren't the objective records that were suggested by the use of a chronograph and a background grid; Muybridge was more concerned with esthetics and thus cropped the images, freely omitted elements of a sequence, or combined pictures from different takes.
[31][26] Historians and theoreticians have proposed that Muybridge's work on animal locomotion influenced a number of other artists, photographers and filmmakers, including Marcel Duchamp, Thomas Eakins, Walt Disney, among others.
[32][33][34][35] The composer Philip Glass created a three-part chamber opera titled The Photographer in 1982 that featured a slide show of the motion studies in the second act.
[36] The conceptual artist, Sol LeWitt was inspired by the serial nature of the Animal Locomotion studies, and produced works that directly refers to it.
[37][38][39] Poet and legendary singer Jim Morrison wrote about the project in his bundle The Lords and New Creatures (1970): "Muybridge derived his animal subjects from the Philadelphia Zoological Garden, male performers from the University.
[41] An animation of Muybridge's pictures of galloping horse Annie G. (plate 626)[42] was featured in Jordan Peele's 2022 science fiction horror film Nope.
