Eadweard Muybridge
Eadweard Muybridge (born 1830, died 1904) was a British-born photographer, known primarily for his early use of multiple cameras to capture motion.
In 1872, businessman and former California governor Leland Stanford hired Muybridge to settle a bet: Stanford claimed, contrary to popular belief, that there was a point in a horse's gallop when all four hooves were off the ground. By 1878, Muybridge had successfully photographed a horse in fast motion using a series of cameras controlled by trip wires. This series of photos is called The Horse in Motion, and shows that, indeed, the hooves all leave the ground.
The system was a precursor to the development of the motion picture camera; when the photographs were printed onto a zoetrope or other viewing device, realistic motion could be replicated.
Muybridge used this technique many times to photograph people and animals to study their movement.
Similar setups of carefully timed multiple cameras are used in modern special effects photography with the opposite goal: capturing changing camera angles with little or no movement of the subject.
Influenced:
- Jules Maray - recorded first series of live action with a single camera.
- Thomas Edison - owns patent for motion picture camera.
- William Dickson - credited as inventor of motion picture camera.
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