Essential Films

Horse gaits never ceased to feature as subject matter in Eadweard Muybridge’s output since his initial successes in California in 1878. Produced within a decade, "Man Riding Jumping Horse" (1887) was shot in Philadelphia, featuring Daisy passing over a hurdle. The sequence of photographs still demonstrates how difficult it was to capture animals in motion at high speed, where clarity had to give way to the overall effect of presenting images successively to reproduce movement. Though his studies in the 1880s aimed to further the science of locomotion, this series still inhabits the sense of wonder that comes with watching a horse gallop. The animal’s motion became synonymous with the birth of motion pictures, making any chronophotographic work featuring horses a memorable encounter with that moment.
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Eadweard Muybridge must have been far more interested in artistic representation than in science when producing "Child Bringing Bouquet to Woman" (1887). There is ample movement that could serve the study of locomotion, but the emotional warmth of this sequence suggests a rare attempt at narrative building through chronophotography. The exchange of the flowers for an embrace moves beyond simple storytelling, as the possibility of a plot between the two figures is left open to interpretation. By using actors to recreate a moment of tenderness between mother and child, Muybridge hinted at the possibility of using moving images to recreate real-life experiences through performance for the camera, taking baby steps towards narrative art.
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