Hedge Your Bets

Photography in the 21st century is omnipresent—at least in the method we know it. In 2011, Pew Research Center reported that 92% of phone owners use their phones to take photos—and with 65% of American adults owning a phone, that is a huge representation (Mobile Technology Fact Sheet).

But before Instagram, #selfies and filters there was film photography. Now photography has a rich and deep history beginning in 1839—but we will focus on Eadweard Muybridge and a few decades after the origins of film, 1878.

Muybridge, was contacted by the Governor of California, Leland Stanford, for a crucial and extremely sensitive task. To settle a bet (Miller). In a twist of fate, this almost preposterous request helped change the way the world sees and captures motion. Prior to Muybridge’s work, the public sat up for days debating whether all four hooves of a horse left the ground when they galloped.

….there wasn’t much to do in the 1800s.

Muybridge didn’t stop at the gate with horses, he used his “bullet time” methodology of setting multiple cameras on timers to capture subjects in motion. He eventually collected a volume of 20,000 photos—contributing to the modern culture of inquiry and influencing the way the mechanics of man and animals were viewed.

Not only do we still hold the desire for inquiry today, the advancements in photography and cinematography have allowed us the luxury of utilizing Muybridge’s camera set up in an entertainment capacity.

Muybridge is the one. The one who got us looking at how a subject truly moves, and slowing everything down so we could visualize it. As a visual designer, it can only be suggested that we continue to slow down and ask the questions of how things work.