Photo Sequence Of Racehorse Essay

Although only briefly mentioned in the course text book, Photo Sequence of Racehorse (1884-1885) created by Eadweard Muybridge is the second work deserving enough to be preserved at all costs. Edgar Degas’ paintings of racehorses were inspired by Muybridge’s experiments with stop-action photography. Degas was able to examine the anatomy and movement of a racehorse through the photographs taken by Muybridge. It wasn’t just artists influenced by Muybridge’s photo experiments. The world of art, science, technology, and entertainment were opened up and changed forever. Eadweard Muybridge began his experiments with photography and film in the late 1880s with a sequence of photographs of a running racehorse. He was commissioned by Leland Stanford, a wealthy man who sought to settle a debate of …show more content…
Looking at Photo Sequence of Racehorse, the answer is yes, a trotting racehorse does lift its four feet off the ground at one time. Not only was the debate settled, but it was this commission that inspired Muybridge to take his ideas further. He went on to invent a high speed film, able to capture the image of a moving animal faster than the human eye can see. The world at this time was in the midst of a global change in technology with the rise of the railroad system and still photography. Muybridge took photography and motion to a new level by creating the zoopraxiscope which projected his images of animals in motion on a screen, creating moving pictures. Muybridge’s photo experiments added to the understanding of nature by allowing scientists the ability to stop time and examine animals in a way humans never could before. Photo Sequence of Racehorse is the foundation in which Muybridge began his journey into the idea of time and motion. Animals weren’t the only subject of study available with these new forms of visual data. Muybridge also