Category: Arts & Humanities, Text, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Eadweard Muybridge

Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904) wished to catalogue every aspect of human and animal locomotion with his camera. He photographed hundreds of subjects engaged in actions both mundane and arcane: nude figures walking and lifting children, athletes boxing and fencing, and animals hurdling, kicking, or slowly ambling along. He was the first photographer to visually dissect these activities, creating images that delighted and mystified the public in the late 19th century.