Eadweard Muybridge: Photographer
Eadweard Muybridge, known for his animated
photographs
Eadward
Muybridge was a photographer,
-and an artist- born in England, known mainly for his early use of multiple cameras to
capture motion. He used the zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that
pre-dated the celluloid film strip which is still used
today.
A phenakistoscope disc in motion
This device took a disc that was mounted
vertically on a handle and spun it. A series of pictures, drawn to correspond with the frames
of the animation, were placed around the inside of the disc. People could spin the disc and
see the disc's reflection in a mirror. As the disc turned the images magically
moved..
Eadward Muybridge Photographs
Eadward
Muybridge started his career in San Francisco as a publisher's agent and bookseller in
1855. In 1866 he had started working as a photographer and became very successful in the
profession.
In 1872, a
businessman and race horse owner, Leland Stanford, was
debating whether during a horse's trot, all four hooves were ever off the ground at the
same time. He wanted to find out scientifically. Stanford hired Eadweard Muybridge for
that task.
Eadweard Muybridge developed a scheme for
instantaneous motion picture capture. Muybridge's technology involved chemical formulas for
photographic processing and an electrical trigger. Basic Sequential
photography
Edward Muybridge settled
the question in 1877 with a single photograph showing Stanford's
racehorse Occident airborne during trot. The Muybridge horse became famous overnight and he
would become one of the masters of photography.
The Zoopraxiscope
Then Eadward Muybridge invented the zoopraxiscope.
The zoopraxiscope projected images from rotating glass disks in rapid succession to give the impression
of motion. The images were initially painted onto the glass, as silhouettes. A second
series of discs, used outline drawings printed onto the discs photographically, then
colored by hand. The system was, in many ways, an early version of the motion picture,
early cinema, and roll film.
Edweard Muybridge visited Étienne Jules de
Marey. He visited Marey’s studio in France and saw his stop-motion
studies before continuing to improve his own work in the same
area.
Edward Muybridge then made disks for the phenakistoscope (also spelled
phenakistiscope), a toy used to view short motion sequences. A spinning disc was
mounted vertically on a handle. Around the center of the disc was a series of pictures drawn
corresponding to frames of the animation. You would spin the disc and look at the disc's
reflection in a mirror.
The word "phenakistoscope" comes from Greek meaning
"to cheat", as it deceives the eye by making the pictures look like they are in
animation.
Muybridge later adapted his stills to fit the
zoetrope, a
children's toy -also known as "the wheel of life"- that used persistence of vision (i.e., the
brain's facility to blend images into continuous movement)
Muybridge
discs
Shown here are a few of the works of Eadweard Muybridge. This
galley shows you the disks that are available to be perches through out store.
Now you can create your own Muybridge optical toy!

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Athletes
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Boxing
The original was made c1893 by Eadweard Muybridge.
Images on a disc which when spun gave the illusion of two men boxing.
Click on the
image to view a bigger size!

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print
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Man on a
Horse The original was
made c1893 by
Eadweard Muybridge.
Images on a disc which when spun gave the illusion of a horse
galloping. Click on the image to view a bigger
size!

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print
|

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A horse back somersault
The original was made c1893 by Eadweard Muybridge. Images on a disc which
when spun gave the illusion of a man doing a somersault on
horseback. Click on the image to
view a bigger size!

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print
|

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A couple
waltzing
The original was made c1893 by Muybridge, Eadweard
Images on a disc which when spun gave the illusion of a couple
dancing. Click on the image to view a bigger
size!

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Now! Only
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print
|
These are
modern print reproductions printed on 12" x 18" paper.
They can be mounted on any kind of foam core or hard
backing and made into your own toy!
Remember:
You can't buy these reproduction
prints anywhere else!
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Print!
No purchace nessesarry. Monthly Winners!
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Eadweard Muybridge
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Eadward
Muybridge was an
eccentric character. He went by at least 5 different names which was not the
oddest thing about Muybridge. He was often described as
flamboyant,
odd and a little bit hard to deal with. Muybridge called himself a
"photographic artist" and undoubtedly lived a life full of adventure,
melodrama and huge financial highs and lows. He was not a person you
could pass on the street without taking a second look. Onlookers were
apt to see a man with intense, deep-set eyes, wild white hair and a
chronically tobacco-stained beard that seemed to tumble down his chest.
One contemporary of Muybridge stated that he looked like “Walt Whitman
ready to play King Lear."
Phillip
Prodger, a photographic historian, says Muybridge fits the image of most
great English eccentrics. Sometimes his behavior went beyond whimsical
peculiarities, erupting in a violent outbursts and temper tantrums. Yet in
most social situations he was friendly, amicable even charming.
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Don't miss out on this opportunity to get
your own discs from this great master!!
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Eadweard Muybridge Photographer ~
Muybridge and Leland Stanford
Thaumatrope and Flip Books ~ The Zoopraxiscope
and Motion Picture ~ Optical Toys
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