Early Photography and Eadweard Muybridge

In January, 2006, I saw an astute and technically sophisticated play at UBC called Studies in Motion (caution, noisy, unmutable flash ahead). Though the text got a little buried in all the visual extravangza, Kevin Kerr is a great playwright (here are his thoughts on the project) and I really enjoyed the show. It felt like one of the most contemporary plays I’ve ever seen.

The play was a biography of Eadweard Muybridge, one of the world’s first really important photographers. He proved, among other things, that all four of a horse’s legs are off the ground simultaneously when it gallops.

I was reminded of this by Neatorama, who’s assembled a nifty overview of early photographs and photographers.