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Muybridge’s work on animal and human locomotion created images that are a combination of the three major types of photography — documentary, art and nature — creating riveting images that document the movements of the natural world.Label Type
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The Drexel Collection has an extensive collection of photographs, including “Pigeon Flying” from Eadweard Muybridge’s Animal Locomotion studies. Muybridge is known for his work in photographic studies of motion. In order to capture these sequential photographs of successive phases of the pigeon’s flight, Muybridge designed an elaborate photographic system that combined multiple cameras with rapid shutter mechanisms. His work pioneered photographic studies of motion and lead the way for the development of motion picture projection.Label Type
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Eadweard Muybridge was hired by Leland Stanford in 1872 to photographically prove that a running horse had all four feet off the ground. At the time, the wet plate processes were too slow to provide accurate data. In 1877, after being on trial for murdering his wife’s lover, Muybridge returned to his work on animal locomotion. Now using a ripen emulsion, he was able to depict animals in motion, which led to some of the earliest work in moving pictures.