Eadweard Muybridge was not a scientist: He merely
masqueraded as one. The motion studies were not conducted under
laboratory conditions, and Eadweard had no qualms about fudging data;
heduplicated, replaced, or renumbered frames in more than a third of
his studies. Some sequences were not captured in movement, but posed.
Given these revelations, what are we to make of Muybridge?
For the record, Muybridge was the first to develop a system for taking
a series of still photos of objects in rapid motion. He also was the
first to reproduce and synthesize action by projecting sequential
photos on a screen.
More importantly, Muybridge was one of the first to explore the
no-man's-land between science and art. All his inventions were means to
artistic ends, and that's where his influence has been most keenly
felt. Motion pictures, medical photography, and comic book art
developed from conventions Muybridge established. He fragmented
movement in a way that's become intuitive to us.
His real contributions to motion pictures were not technological, but
artistic: Edison and Dickson ripped their early film subjects -- men
boxing, women dancing -- right from the pages of Animal Locomotion.
Camera angles chosen by Muybridge became standard elements of film
grammar. In many ways, Muybridge was the first film director.
In short, Muybridge was one of the first modern artists. He fragmented
space and time and even point-of-view for artistic effect, used the
most advanced technology of his day to manipulate reality, and help
create radical new artistic framework. Muybridge's motion studies
sliced time into discreet bits and put it on a plate for all to see.
The world has never been the same since.
