Motion Pictures

Eadweard Muybridge was an English photographer known for his photographic studies of motion. 

In the late 1800's, Muybridge captured thousands of sequences showing people and animals moving through unexceptional, everyday activities. 

The human models were photographed against a measured grid background in a variety of action sequences, such as the man above walking and removing his hat. 

In Muybridge's time, capturing and measuring motion like this was considered High Science and it led to numerous collaborations with universities (including an unusual encounter with Leland Stanford) and contributed to the development of the field of biomechanics. 

Toward the end of his career, Muybridge spent much time selecting and editing his photos for publication in an enormous collection called Animal Locomotion: an Electrophotographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements.