fbpx

Eadweard Muybridge

American, born England

1830, Kingston upon Thames, England
1904, Kingston upon Thames, England

Biography

An accomplished bookseller, inventor, and businessman, Eadweard Muybridge advanced both technical and aesthetic applications of the photography medium. Born Edward James Muggeridge in 1830 in Kingston upon Thames, England, Muybridge began his career in 1867 in San Francisco, photographing the West at a time when the nature of landscape itself took on new meaning as railroads, steamships, and rapid means of communication began to connect the world in unprecedented ways. In the ensuing years he reinterpreted landscape photography, surveyed the construction of railroads and the growth of San Francisco and other areas of the Pacific Coast, and documented the Modoc War and the landscape and architecture of Central America.

Muybridge also used his camera to explore the potential of motion pictures. He devised techniques to freeze animal and human locomotion, to depict movement as sequences of still images, and to reanimate these in some of the first projected moving pictures. In 1878, working under the patronage of railroad baron Leland Stanford, Muybridge successfully photographed horses in motion, combining art and science to represent movements that were not visible to the eye. By 1887, when he published his masterpiece, Animal Locomotion, he had become one of the most influential photographers of his time, inspiring artists and scientists to look more closely at the nature of movement.

Eadweard Muybridge is remembered today for his pioneering photographic studies of motion, which ultimately led to the development of cinema.

Works in the Collection

Please note that artwork locations are subject to change, and not all works are on view at all times. If you are planning a visit to SFMOMA to see a specific work of art, we suggest you contact us at collections@sfmoma.org to confirm it will be on view.

Only a portion of SFMOMA's collection is currently online, and the information presented here is subject to revision. Please contact us at collections@sfmoma.org to verify collection holdings and artwork information. If you are interested in receiving a high resolution image of an artwork for educational, scholarly, or publication purposes, please contact us at copyright@sfmoma.org.

This resource is for educational use and its contents may not be reproduced without permission. Please review our Terms of Use for more information.