Eadweard Muybridge
1887 (ca)
Plate 718, Cat in Motion

Collotype
17 x 44,5 cm (image) 48,4 x 61 cm (mount)
 
Bazar Nadar / Wouter Lambrechts
A perfect example of the groundbreaking work Muybridge made about the animal and human locomotion. The 24 images perfectly show the movement of a "galloping cat".
 
Phases 1 to 10 the cat is trotting, phases 11 to 24 the cat changes to gallop (.035 sec.). The photographic freezing of motion was a welcome discovery for both scientists and artists. Fascinatingly, stopping motion in separate frames also provides the starting point for mechanically restarting the same movement. Something Muybridge also showed in his lectures with the Zoöpraxiscope.
 
Muybridge is best known for his photographs of horses. But after the success of these series, he produced a plethora of other examples of both animals and people. These photo series were published using the photomechanical collotype technique, titled "Human and Animal Locomotion".
 
Literature:
Lewis S. Brown: Animals in Motion, Eadweard Muybridge, Dover Publications NY, 1957 (plate 125)
Flipbook: Plate 720 - Cat galloping, published by Optical Toys
 
LL/131062