{"id":1327,"date":"2021-11-18T22:36:55","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T14:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?p=1327"},"modified":"2021-11-18T22:52:09","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T14:52:09","slug":"new-documentary-looks-to-position-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-as-essential-figure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/new-documentary-looks-to-position-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-as-essential-figure\/","title":{"rendered":"New Documentary Looks to Position Photographer Eadweard Muybridge As Essential Figure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many people are likely familiar with his most famous photographs, sequential images of a horse galloping that proved that these magnificent creatures did in fact float above the ground, if only for a millisecond. But they are likely less familiar with the man behind those early shots, titled\u00a0The Horse in Motion<\/em>:\u00a0Eadweard Muybridge<\/a>, a mysterious yet pivotal figure in both the history photography and motion pictures.\u00a0Exposing Muybridge<\/a><\/em>, a new documentary written and directed by Marc Shaffer, tells his story, from his early days photographing U.S. military conflicts with Native Americans in the West to how he came to revolutionize photography with\u00a0The Horse in Motion\u00a0<\/em>(1878)\u2014and how one patron tried to take all the credit.<\/p>\n

In the film\u2019s opening sequences,\u00a0 we hear subjects, historians, photographers, and even actor Gary Oldman, who collects Muybridge\u2019s work, describing the artist. \u201cDuplicitous.\u201d \u201cTricky.\u201d \u201cA Survivor.\u201d \u201cGod, or maybe the devil,\u201d they say. Those are all rather strong characterizations that\u00a0set up what could be a tantalizing tale of polarizing figure with a dramatic life, but ultimately Muybridge\u2019s personality doesn\u2019t quite come through in Shaffer\u2019s otherwise well-told film.<\/p>\n

Born in 1830 in England, Muybridge left his home country at age 20. He was an eccentric\u00a0who risked his life for dramatic shots. More importantly, he was ambitious: \u201cI am going to make a name for myself. If I fail, you will never hear of me again,\u201d he once wrote to his grandmother.<\/p>\n

While the shades of his person might not fully emerge, the film\u2019s focus on his work is superbly done, wrapping his work and his person around an essential early question of photography: Can a camera lie?<\/p>\n

In 1873, Leland Stanford\u2014a former governor of California, a railroad baron, and lover and breeder of racehorses\u2014hired Muybridge to do the\u00a0seemingly impossible\u00a0of capturing the gait of a galloping horse. Stanford wanted to confirm his hypothesis, through photography, that there was a moment in a horse\u2019s gallop when all four legs were suspended off the ground, curled toward its belly. At the time glass plate photography took several seconds, even minutes, to be capture something, but Stanford tasked\u00a0Muybridge with capturing life\u00a0in a fraction of a second.<\/p>\n

In a tasteful re-creation,\u00a0Exposing Muybridge<\/em>\u00a0reenacts the innovative, almost scientific set that Muybridge put together. A wall, painted white and slanting toward the sun was set up to reflect as much light as possible, and white, ground lime was also spread across the track. Muybridge had a shack built to house 12 cameras all set up with a special guillotine shutter that he had invented. After much trial and error,\u00a0The Horse in Motion\u00a0<\/em>was made and was met with instant success\u2014and suspicion.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMuybridge was offering a picture no one had seen before,\u201d Thomas Gunning, a cinema historian, says in the film. \u201cThe camera\u2019s possibilities became redefined.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Exposing<\/div>\n<\/div>
Exposing Muybridge poster<\/span>COURTESY INSIDE OUT MEDIA<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Together, Muybridge and Stanford went to Europe to bask in the acclaim. But Stanford soon became jealous of Muybridge, who was showcasing another invention, the zoopraxiscope, a rotating disk that projected a moving image of the horse running\u00a0and was an important precursor to the movie projector. In return, Standford published a book about the movements of animals, using Muybridge\u2019s photos. Instead of sharing the spotlight and highlighting how Muybridge had invented a way to capture images at fractions of the second, Stanford\u00a0merely listed Muybrigde as a technician on his project. The photographer\u00a0spent the rest of his life reeling from this betrayal.<\/p>\n

Muybridge returned to the U.S. and continued producing various bodies of work, under the aegis of the University of Pennsylvania, including images of even more animals, athletes, and disabled people in what became a comprehensive and expensive study of motion.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s climax comes at the revelation of a little known fact about many of Muybridge\u2019s photographic documentations\u2014they had been edited. His landscapes were doctored to feature extra mountain ranges or particularly pretty clouds, photographs of Native Americans in military conflict with the U.S. were staged, and more. \u201cA camera can\u2019t lie,\u201d Gunning says, \u201cbut it can\u2019t tell the truth either.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, the\u00a0irony of the\u00a0Muybridge\u2019s life is that his most accurate work,\u00a0The Horse in Motion<\/em>, was the one piece he was accused of misrepresenting. Though that accusation would follow him during his lifetime,\u00a0Exposing Muybridge\u00a0<\/em>looks to proves that Muybridge was a true pioneer of photography and motion pictures\u2014in both fact and fiction.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source\uff1ahttps:\/\/www.artnews.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many people are likely familiar with his most famous photographs, sequential images of a horse galloping that proved that these magnificent creatures did in fact float above the ground, if only for a millisecond. But they are likely less familiar with the man behind those early shots, titled\u00a0The Horse in Motion:\u00a0Eadweard Muybridge, a mysterious yet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13,7,4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artist","category-auction","category-events","category-gallery","category-latest-news"],"yoast_head":"\nNew Documentary Looks to Position Photographer Eadweard Muybridge As Essential Figure - Investable Art Auctioneer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many people are likely familiar with his most famous photographs, sequential images of a horse galloping that proved that these magnificent creatures did in fact float above the ground, if only for a millisecond.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/new-documentary-looks-to-position-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-as-essential-figure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Documentary Looks to Position Photographer Eadweard Muybridge As Essential Figure - Investable Art Auctioneer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many people are likely familiar with his most famous photographs, sequential images of a horse galloping that proved that these magnificent creatures did in fact float above the ground, if only for a millisecond.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/new-documentary-looks-to-position-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-as-essential-figure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Investable Art Auctioneer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-18T14:36:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-18T14:52:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/exposing_muybridge_key_still.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"681\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"383\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chloe Nicholls\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chloe Nicholls\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/new-documentary-looks-to-position-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-as-essential-figure\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/new-documentary-looks-to-position-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-as-essential-figure\/\",\"name\":\"New Documentary Looks to Position Photographer Eadweard Muybridge As Essential Figure - Investable Art Auctioneer\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-18T14:36:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-18T14:52:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/8970f67f73afbf7d021dbf09ccb32744\"},\"description\":\"Many people are likely familiar with his most famous photographs, sequential images of a horse galloping that proved that these magnificent creatures did in fact float above the ground, if only for a millisecond.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/new-documentary-looks-to-position-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-as-essential-figure\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/new-documentary-looks-to-position-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-as-essential-figure\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/new-documentary-looks-to-position-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-as-essential-figure\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New Documentary Looks to Position Photographer Eadweard Muybridge As Essential Figure\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/\",\"name\":\"Investable Art Auctioneer\",\"description\":\"Atelier Auction\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/8970f67f73afbf7d021dbf09ccb32744\",\"name\":\"Chloe Nicholls\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17de1bd86f8b21c51e6105f410fd264e72dda3abc6429dc91326e1a0ab2c365c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17de1bd86f8b21c51e6105f410fd264e72dda3abc6429dc91326e1a0ab2c365c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chloe Nicholls\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/author\/chloe-nicholls\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Documentary Looks to Position Photographer Eadweard Muybridge As Essential Figure - Investable Art Auctioneer","description":"Many people are likely familiar with his most famous photographs, sequential images of a horse galloping that proved that these magnificent creatures did in fact float above the ground, if only for a millisecond.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/new-documentary-looks-to-position-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-as-essential-figure\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Documentary Looks to Position Photographer Eadweard Muybridge As Essential Figure - Investable Art Auctioneer","og_description":"Many people are likely familiar with his most famous photographs, sequential images of a horse galloping that proved that these magnificent creatures did in fact float above the ground, if only for a millisecond.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/new-documentary-looks-to-position-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-as-essential-figure\/","og_site_name":"Investable Art Auctioneer","article_published_time":"2021-11-18T14:36:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-11-18T14:52:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":681,"height":383,"url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/exposing_muybridge_key_still.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Chloe Nicholls","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chloe Nicholls","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/new-documentary-looks-to-position-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-as-essential-figure\/","url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/new-documentary-looks-to-position-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-as-essential-figure\/","name":"New Documentary Looks to Position Photographer Eadweard Muybridge As Essential Figure - Investable Art Auctioneer","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-11-18T14:36:55+00:00","dateModified":"2021-11-18T14:52:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/8970f67f73afbf7d021dbf09ccb32744"},"description":"Many people are likely familiar with his most famous photographs, sequential images of a horse galloping that proved that these magnificent creatures did in fact float above the ground, if only for a millisecond.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/new-documentary-looks-to-position-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-as-essential-figure\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/new-documentary-looks-to-position-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-as-essential-figure\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/new-documentary-looks-to-position-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-as-essential-figure\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New Documentary Looks to Position Photographer Eadweard Muybridge As Essential Figure"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/","name":"Investable Art Auctioneer","description":"Atelier Auction","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/8970f67f73afbf7d021dbf09ccb32744","name":"Chloe Nicholls","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17de1bd86f8b21c51e6105f410fd264e72dda3abc6429dc91326e1a0ab2c365c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17de1bd86f8b21c51e6105f410fd264e72dda3abc6429dc91326e1a0ab2c365c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Chloe Nicholls"},"url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/author\/chloe-nicholls\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1329,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1327\/revisions\/1329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}