Eadweard Muybridge's Horse Photos, Late 1870s
Muybridge Photographs Occident and Other Trotters in California
Oct 24, 2008
The two men sought the photographic answer to the question whether at any time while running, a horse has all fours off the ground. Muybridge's earlier photos of the horse seemed to show the gelding running at one point with all fours off the ground, an idea called unsupported transit. But their quality was poor. So in July 1877 he took more photos.
Muybridge sent a print made from one of these 1877 negatives to a few members of the California press. He freely admitted that the negative had been retouched, then a common practice. The print did not unanimously convince the press. But despite that failure, in November 1877 the 12th San Francisco Industrial Exhibition awarded him a prize for his horse photos.
Common too at the time was to use a superior image-reproducing process such as lithography to reproduce photographic images for wide distribution. Currier & Ives issued at least two lithographs of Occident trotting (1873 and 1876). These issues were likely based on Muybridge's photos. Many of his early horse images, which were usually taken against a light backdrop, look like silhouettes rather than the photos we are used to today. One reason for this is that in using a high shutter speed to "stop" motion, time necessary to make a correct exposure was sacrificed.
Work Moves to Palo Alto; Demonstration for the Press
Wealthy businessman and horse breeder Stanford initiated and financed this project. In 1878 he moved to Palo Alto, taking his several hundred horses with him. By now Muybridge had increased the number of cameras he used from one to 12 in order to record the step-by-step leg placements of the horse. He also improved his technique by using electronic shutters.
Buoyed with confidence by Muybridge's successful photo sessions, Stanford invited the press to watch Muybridge photograph Abe Edgington and Sallie Gardner in June 1878. When the wheels of Abe Edgington's sulky passed over wires placed just below the track's surface, the electronic shutter was activated. When the chest of the running Sallie Gardner ( not a harness racing horse) made contact with silk threads placed across the track at chest level, the shutter was tripped. By chance the Kentucky-bred mare bolted and broke the strap that held her saddle in place. As the newsmen waited, Muybridge developed the negatives in his onsite darkroom. When they saw the broken strap, they were convincedf of the authenticity of his photos. After this,a belief in unsupported transit was seldom challenged.
Photos Made Available to the Public
In the summer and fall of 1878, Muybridge photographed Abe Edgington, Sallie Gardner, Occident and more than 20 other Stanford horses. That year he published a six-card series called Horses in Motion, which pictured Sallie Gardner, Abe Edgington, Occident and Mahomet, all trotters except the first. In 1879 he upped the number of cameras in use to 24. The 1878 and 1879 photos were the basis of Attitudes of Animals in Motion, his book which pictured the horse, the human, the dog, the ox, the deer, the bull and other animals in their strides.
Muybridge's longterm and systematic photographing of fast-moving subjects made him a pioneer not only in recording animal locomotion but in sports photography as well.
Sources:
Stanford University. Department of Art. Eadweard Muybridge: The Stanford Years, 1872-1882. Stanford: Stanford University. 1972
Mac Donnell, Kevin. Eadweard Muybridge. The Man Who Invented the Moving Picture. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1972.
Prodger, Phillip. Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement. Stanford: Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University in Association with Oxford University Press. 2003.
