EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE: FATHER OF CINEMATOGRAPHY

Muybridge (1830-1904)

Eadweard Muybridge was born in Kingston on Thames in 1830 - at which point he bore the somewhat duller name of Edward James Muggeridge.

At the age of 22 he left England for America, seeking his fame and fortune. He first worked in New York as a bookbinder's agent and then moved to San Francisco where his interest in photography bloomed. Using a mobile darkroom that was christened The Flying Studio, he produced stunning stereoscopic views and many beautiful landscapes, such as this one from within a volcano...

But the greater fame that Muybrige desired was found when he came to be hired by the railroad baron, Leland Stanford, a passionate racing horse breeder who commissioned the photographer to solve the age old argument as to the whether or not a running horse ever lifts all four feet from the ground - and Muybridge was to prove that it did!

The ingenius method that Muybridge used was to set up several cameras with shutters attached to threads. As the horse passed by and broke each thread an instant exposure was produced.

The public were amazed at the results and Muybridge went on to develop his art, producing a substantial body of work which was published in his books entitled Animal Locomotion and The Human Figure in Motion.

 Muybridge's study of wrestlers

Francis Bacon's 'Two Fighters'

Such systematic studies of the science of animal motion went on to inspire many twentieth century artists such as Francis Bacon.

In time Muybridge developed the Zoopraxiscope - a method of printing a series of images onto a circuclar base which when made to spin around gave the illusion of movement. In other words, animation.

A Zoopraxiscope - click here to see the couple dancing

A sweet and romantic picture. But, Muybridge's own private life was beset by violence and tragedy.

He married rather late in life to Flora,  a young woman half his age, and while Muybrige was often absent, travelling the land with his cameras, Flora was wooed and her virtue won by a certain Major Harry Larkyns.

When Muybridge came home and discovered the affair he went to visit Larkyns in person, confronting his rival with the words: "Good evening, Major, my name is Muybridge and here is the answer to the letter you sent my wife."

The answer was a bullet. The major was shot dead.

There followed a murder trial but Muybridge was acquited on grounds of justifiable homicide when his lawyers successfully argued that a head injury recieved years before had affected their client's rationality.

But, for Flora the nightmare had only begun. She was pregnant. A baby boy named Florado was born. But her husband refused to believe it was his, forcing the grieving woman to go through the shame of a divorce, soon after which she was to die, suffering from typhoid.

Still Muybridge had no compassion, sending Florado to an orphanage, but how terribly cruel and ironic it was that in later years when 'Floddie' had grown to be man, working as a ranch hand and gardener, he was said to bear such an uncanny resemblance to the famous Eadweard Muybridge.

That unhappy period in Muybridge's life provided the inspiration for an opera by Philip Glass, composed in 1982. The Photographer's libretto is drawn from transcripts of the trial, and letters that Muybridge wrote to his wife.  Act 1 - A Gentleman's Honour - can be heard on youtube.

In his later life Muybridge returned to Kingston on Thames where he died in 1904, bequeathing his original equipment and prints to the Kingston Museum.

Stephen Herbert also has an interesting blog based around the photographer's life and works.

And finally, this is Muybridge's historic image of a buffalo galloping over the plains - and how amazing it is to think what this development in 'moving' photography would lead on to in the next century.

You can watch it here