Eadweard Muybridge Issue For Visual Culture

Relevance of Muybridge work

Discuss about the Eadweard Muybridge Issue for Visual Culture.

Eadweard Muybridge was an English photographer who lived between 9^th April 1830 – 8^th May 1904. He is best remembered for his work in photographic studies on motion picture and motion picture projection. Originally born as Edward James Muggeridge, he came to be known as the father of motion picture (Sailor, 2007).  This is due to his early photographic experiments that are believed to have laid the foundation of the motion picture. He is widely credited as being the inventor of motion picture technique that cinematography was developed.  Muybridge began developing an interest in photography when he was recuperating from a coach crash in 1860. He then moved to the America after his recover and joined photography business in San Francisco. Muybridge later established his name in the art, especially in landscape work. He was in fact appointed as the director of photographic surveys by the United States government in 1868 where he conducted studies in several remote areas including the newly purchased Alaska (Herbert & Reynolds, 2013).

Muybridge was a very daring person at his younger age in the photographic world. This is revealed by the way he left San Francisco in 1860 as a merchant and came back in 1867 as a professional photographer. He gained very high and proficient skills in the profession to own an artistic eye. This can be seen in most of his work where he was able to express his feelings in the way that he captured photography. Looking at some of his work, one can easily feel the mood of the place when it happened. Muybridge was also very passionate at his work (Pytel, 2013). This contributed to his success in the art, he used to focus highly on the landscape and architectural subjects. Also by the fact that he decided to convert a light weight carriage in to a portable darkroom tell a lot about his love for photography.  As he grew in the business, most people would approach him for portrait work including his stereograph which was the popular format of time sold in different galleries and other photographic firms on Montgomery Street in San Francisco.

When he began his career, Muybridge was first hired by Robert B. Woodward where he was tasked to take exclusive photos of his Woodward’s Gardens. This included a zoo, an amusement park, a museum and aquarium that opened in San Francisco in 1866. From this, one learns that as a photographer, Muybridge was a very obedient and humbler person. He spoke very little and did a lot of is talking from the photos he tool.  His reputation was however established in 1867 when he took the Yosemite Valley wilderness photo and other areas in San Francisco (Hillier, 2007). He gained a lot of popularity in landscape photographs that expressed the expansive and grandeur of the western life. Most of his human figures were usually dwarfed by the surroundings as it is expressed in most Chinese paintings.

His humbleness is also expressed in the fact that he never used his real name in signing photographs. Most he went with the pseudonym Helios which was also the name of his studio. Muybridge was also a great risk taker, this was evident from the physical positions he would do to take his photographs, he would also use a very heavy view camera and glasses of plate negatives during his travel. One of the most spectacular photographs he ever published was in 1872 which showed him sitting casually on a rock over the Yosemite Valley which was about 2,000 feet space below him (Nisbet, 2013). The fact that he took photographs in the ever cold Alaska in 1868 also showed his risk taking characteristic. But that is what best photographers are made of. He taught other photographers that a unique picture could only be taken when the photographer himself was ready to take the extra mile for the best capture. This was the same when he was contracted in 1873 by the United States army to photograph the Modoc War against the Native Americans in North Carolina. However, being a passionate person he was, he easily blended with the people around and was able to even take more photographs that were unimaginable at the time.  By use of time-lapse photography, Muybridge was able to make a sequence of images of the San Francisco mint building as it developed from 1870 to 1872 (Sailor, 2007).

When it come to the world of photography, Muybridge is one of the biggest house names. He defines the origin of photography in his own unique way. In 1867, he was credited for capturing the raw beauty of the Californian landscape. With him was a mobile darkroom under the pseudonym Helios. He presented a series of very striking images that were titled scenery of the Yosemite Valle (Hillier, 2007)y.  In this regard, his reputation of cemented as a serious photographer. His contribution to motion pictures cannot go unnoticed. He was able to produce a sequence of shots to capture horses in motion.

This was capture using the San Francisco Governors Horse. He also produced another motion picture in 1879. The unique images produced by Muybridge evolutionalised the world of photography. His motion picture photography was witnessed by both animals and people by using a camera with shutters which worked at a speed of one-thousandth of a second. In fact, he went ahead to create a device known as Zoopraxiscope which worked well with painted glass discs to display images in motion. This gave birth to the field of animation where visual art would be changed to the motion (Herbert & Reynolds, 2013).

With respect to his works, Muybridge can be called the pioneer of cinema who enabled the understanding of the movement of human beings and animals.  His impact on visual arts has continued to be realized in the modern blockbuster film makers, exploration of landscapes and stop time images which continue to manifest in different ways in modern art and film.  In addition, his status as a technical innovator cannot also go unmentioned he came up with various ways to improve photography which can be read in his biography (Hillier, 2007). Muybridge was a businessperson, photojournalist, and land scape artists.

By observing the history of both the professional and social life of Muybridge, one can conclude that the man was unique in the way that he conducted both. As a photographer, he was very aggressive, daring and always passionate to explore new zones and ways of photographic art. One of the most fascinating things about the artists was that he related so much of his working attitude to his work. His photography would define his lifestyle.  His capacity as an entrepreneur also cannot go unmentioned, he invented the motion picture photography which lifted his career to great heights. For example by looking at the Moving Horse, (Pictured Below), one can see ways in which the photographer was determined to become unique in the photography business.

The above picture left most people amazed by the way, still photos would be translated in to a moving horse that was also seen jumping. The moving horse picture was a milestone for the photographer and showed how photography could be used to make stories. The Moving horse is one of the most inspired photographic films to date and is largely credited as being the invention of film.

The above picture of two nude men wrestling was also a master piece for the photographer. Though the picture must have been criticized for its nudity, it clearly expresses the creative mind of the photographer and how daring he was to go an extra mile in telling a story.

The above picture, which was the valley of Yosemite presented another part of Muybridge and his love of nature. His bravery enabled him to travel to places where most photographers of the time never dared. The valley of Yosemite was another piece that described the mind of the photographer as a lover of nature and life.

By looking at the above pictures, it is evident that Muybridge helped built the motion picture industry that is now a multi-billion business. He also documented major event from during and after the American civil war which built the social and political landscape of the United States of America today. This shows that he was a social person who engaged with the new world in the United States and Native Americans very well (Gordon, 2015). 

However, when it comes to the cultural perspective, it is most argued that he did not perform well. This is because most of his productions were viewed by many as being unethical (Gordon, 2015). There were some of his productions that were not accepted by the United States society and most would condemn his work. For example, some of his photography showed nude pictures of men and women which were in that time not accepted openly. With the fact that he was not able to attend to his wife also showed some weaknesses about the photographer. In fact, Muybridge was accused of murdering his wife’s lover, Major Harry larkyns in 1874 (Sailor, 2007). He was however acquitted in a jury trial because it was justifiable. This, however, represents the uncultured part of the photographers since committing murder or killing someone was not cultural upright.

Muybridge creativity depicted the difference between him and other photographers. Even though both of them used shutter parts of the camera, he would go extra miles to introduce imagination into film, which made his work exceptionally interesting to the viewer’s eyes. The themes in Muybridge photography was very different from the rest of the photographers of the 21^st century. In addition, the technology used in his time was very cumbersome and time taking. The photographs were taken through a long chemical process, unlike modern photography which is done digital form and produced instantly (Hillier, 2007).

Conclusion

In the view of both the professional and social life of Eadweard Muybridge, it can be concluded that he was a naturally born photographer. His creativity and love of nature and city life, evidently shows that Muybridge was out to explore the world and bring it to the world through film. His social and cultural life cannot surpass the contribution the man contributed to American history and most importantly to the world of film and photography. He influenced greatly the growth of international trade, nationalism, capitalism and other infrastructural development all around the world by sharing his photography (Pytel, 2013). His contribution to the motion picture film remains to be the mother of modern day film.

References

Gordon, S., 2015. Indecent Exposures: Eadweard Muybridge’s “Animal Locomotion” Nudes. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Herbert, S. & Reynolds, A., 2013. Eadweard Muybridge issue. Early Popular Visual Culture, 11(1), p. 1.

Hillier, P., 2007. Men and Horses in Motion. Early Popular Visual Culture, 5(1), p. 25.

Nisbet, J., 2013. Atmospheric Cameras and Ecological Light in the Landscape Photographs of Eadweard Muybridge. Photography and Culture, 6(2), pp. 131-155.

Pytel, M., 2013. Eadweard Muybridge: inverted modernism and the stereoscopic vision. Early Popular Visual Culture, 11(1), p. 71.

Sailor, R., 2007. Meaningful places: Nineteenth-century photography and the local landscapes of the American West. s.l.:ProQuest Dissertations Publishing..