Animal Locomotion

By the late 1870s, the increased sensitivity and efficiency of the dry-plate process transformed photographic practice by allowing increasingly rapid exposures. Using exposures as short as 1/2000th second, Eadweard Muybridge used this new technology to exhaustively record human and animal movement. His technique involved the use of two batteries of twelve cameras each to produce both lateral and front views of simple actions. The resulting images multiply space and fragment time, creating effects that are both scientifically true and curiously alien to “normal” perception.