The Horse in Motion

The Horse in Motion is a series of cabinet cards by Eadweard Muybridge, including six cards that each show a series of six to twelve "automatic electro-photographs" depicting successive phases in the movement of a horse, shot in June 1878. An additional card reprinted the single image of the horse "Occident" trotting at high speed, which had already been published in 1877. The series became the first example of chronophotography, an early method to photographically record the passing of time, mainly used to document the different phases of locomotion for scientific study. It formed a very influential step in the development of motion pictures. One of the cards (often retitled Sallie Gardner at a Gallop) has even been hailed as "the world's first bit of cinema". Muybridge did project moving images from his photographs with his Zoopraxiscope, from 1880 to 1895, but these were painted on discs and his technology was no more advanced than earlier efforts by others (for instance those by Franz von Uchatius in 1853). Muybridge's work was commissioned by Leland Stanford, the industrialist, former Governor of California, and horseman, who was interested in horse gait analysis. Stanford was personally convinced that contemporary depictions of running horses portrayed the animal incorrectly, and he wished to prove the issue scientifically. In 1882, Stanford had a book published about the project, also titled The Horse in Motion, with circa 100 plates of silhouettes based on the photographs, and analytical text by his physician and personal friend J.D.B. Stillman. Muybridge continued his chronophotographic studies at the University of Pennsylvania, published the results as Animal Locomotion in 1887, and kept on lecturing about his work across the United States and Europe until his retirement around 1896.