Muybridge is a name that may not be widely recognized in today’s glittering film industry, yet his role in the history of cinema is immense. Though he was neither the inventor of the camera nor the first to create a feature-length film, Muybridge successfully bridged the gap between photography and film through his various visual experiments. Without his contributions, the development of cinema might not have progressed as quickly or dynamically as it has today. Long before the golden age of Hollywood, before sound films dominated the silver screen, and even before the invention of the video camera, the history of cinema had already begun with Muybridge.
Brief Biography of Muybridge
Muybridge was born on April 9, 1830, in England, with the birth name Eadweard James Muggeridge. He later moved to the United States and became known as a landscape photographer. However, his career took a drastic turn when he accepted a challenge that sounded simple but turned out to pave the way for a revolution in visual technology.
A Challenge from a Governor
In 1872, Leland Stanford—former Governor of California and renowned railroad entrepreneur—asked Muybridge to answer a popular question at the time: Do all four legs of a horse really leave the ground when it is running fast?
To answer this question, Muybridge created a highly innovative photographic system for his time. He set up 12 cameras along the running track, each triggered by a string pulled as the horse passed by. The result? He successfully captured the moment when all four of the horse’s legs were off the ground—a significant discovery in the world of photography and a crucial step toward motion pictures.
Zoopraxiscope: Bringing Still Images to Life
Not stopping there, Muybridge wanted more than just still documentation. He wanted to bring back to life the movements that had been captured in a series of photographs. Thus, in 1879, he created the Zoopraxiscope—a projection device that used a glass disc containing sequential images. When the disc was spun and illuminated, the images appeared to move in real time.
This technology leveraged the principle of persistence of vision, or the human eye’s ability to retain an image, creating the illusion of movement when a series of images were displayed at high speed. The Zoopraxiscope became one of the first projectors to display moving images to the public, even before the modern cinema was invented. Muybridge frequently demonstrated the device at various academic and public forums, showcasing how the human and animal bodies move with detail and precision.
Monumental Work: Animal Locomotion
The success of his first experiment encouraged Muybridge to continue developing similar projects with a broader subject matter: humans and various types of animals. In collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens, he conducted systematic and scientific motion studies. The result was a monumental work entitled Animal Locomotion: An Electro-Photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements, published between 1884 and 1887.
This work consists of more than 11 volumes and contains thousands of frames showing the movements of humans—from athletes, dancers, laborers, to children—as well as various animals such as lions, birds, elephants, and of course, horses. This work not only made a significant contribution to the development of cinema but also had a wide-reaching impact in the fields of anatomy, physiology, and fine art.
More Than Just a Name in the Footnotes
Although names such as Thomas Edison or the Lumière brothers are more often associated with the beginnings of film, it is important to remember that the foundations for the emergence of moving image projection technology were laid earlier by Muybridge. His experiments and innovations became an important starting point in modern visual history.
The birth of cinema was not an instant process. Behind the grandeur of the big screen and the advancements in cinematic technology today, there are pioneers like Muybridge who dared to ask questions, experiment, and create something that had never existed before. The next time you enjoy a movie at the cinema, it might be worth taking a moment to remember that it all began with a simple question: “Can a horse float in the air while running?” For it was from there that the journey of cinema began.
Read also The Journey of Cinema: From Silent to Speak to gain further relevant insights into the history of cinema.
