Auction of rare photos brings renewed
interest in the fascinating life of a 19th century motion picture
pioneer.
His photographs are immediately
familiar to us.
Edweard
Muybridge (nee Edward James Muggeridge, 1830-1904) is a British pioneer in the
photographic arts, who first became well known in America for his 1868 images
of Yosemite. He later became important for
his seminal work in photographic studies of motion and in motion-picture
projection.
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| Edweard Muybridge |
Less
familiar is the dramatic personal story of this eccentric Victorian genius who
did so much to advance modern day cinematography.
Recently,
one of his published portfolio’s, an 11-part series of panoramic photographs of
San Francisco as seen from the then top of industrialist Mark Hopkins’s home at
California and Mason Streets, 1877 came up for auction.
According to
Muybridge biographer, David Harris, the panorama portfolio took Muybridge
approximately five hours to complete. He began in the late morning with a view
towards the south-west and moved in a clockwise direction moving the camera
away from the sun. By mid-afternoon when made his final view the sun had moved
90-degrees.
The albumen
prints were mounted accordion-style on 11 leaves of buff paper, mounted to a
single piece of linen; with the photographer's credit, title, and copyright in
letterpress on the central plate; the whole enclosed into, dark red cloth
covers with the title and photographer's name in gilt.
Size: 7 1/8
x 86 inches
The panorama
is expected to draw $50,000 at auction.
From Encyclopedia Brittanica: “...Muybridge’s experiments in
photographing motion began in 1872, when the railroad magnate Leland Stanford
hired him to prove that during a particular moment in a trotting horse’s gait,
all four legs are off the ground simultaneously. His first efforts were
unsuccessful because his camera lacked a fast shutter. The project was then
interrupted while Muybridge was being tried for the murder of his wife’s lover.
Although he
was acquitted, he found it expedient to travel for a number of years in Mexico
and Central America, making publicity photographs for the Union Pacific
Railroad, a company owned by Stanford.
“In 1877 he
returned to California and resumed his experiments in motion photography...” For the rest of Brittanica’s essay on Muybridge click here.
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Muybridge films adapted to modern techniques via You Tube:
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Aside from his groundbreaking innovation in photography, Muybridge
had an entirely different reputation in 1874 – that of a man, who tracked down
his wife’s lover and shot him through the heart. His life story is worthy of a modern film
treatment.
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| Flora Stone |
Forty-two year old, Muybridge married a 21-year-old divorcee Flora Stone in
1872. They had a baby boy, Floredo Helios Muybridge, two years later. But Muybridge thought Floredo might not have been his son
after discovering a series of letters between his wife and drama critic Major
Harry Larkyns. Reportedly, she also sent a picture of Floredo to Larkyns with
the caption “Little Harry.”Muybridge decided to take matters into his own
hands. He shot Larkyns after finding him in Calistoga. When Muybridge was put
on trial in 1875, he pleaded insanity, but then changed his defense to
“justifiable homicide,” or killing without bad intent.
At his
murder trial in 1875, the jury rejected an insanity plea but accepted the
defense of justifiable homicide, finding Muybridge not guilty of murder. After
the acquittal, Muybridge sailed for Central America and spent the next year in
"working exile."
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Photograph by Muybridge of San Francisco's California Street facing west, 1877
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