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Life in motion. Eadweard Muybridge: The Human and Animal Locomotion Photographs deals with the forerunner of the moving image. English photographer Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) as a pioneer in visual studies of human and animal locomotion. In 1872, he famously helped settle a bet for former California governor Leland Stanford by photographing a galloping horse. Muybridge invented a complex system of electric shutter releases that captured freeze frames-proving conclusively, for the first time, that a galloping horse lifts all four hooves off the ground for a fraction of a second. For the next three decades, Muybridge continued his quest to fully catalog many aspects of human and animal movement, shooting hundreds of horses and other animals, as well as nude or draped subjects engaged in various activities such as running, walking, boxing, fencing, and descending a staircase (the latter study inspired Marcel Duchamp's famous 1912 painting). This resplendent book traces the life and work of Muybridge, from his early thinking about anatomy and movement to his latest photographic experiments. All 781 plates of Muybridge's groundbreaking Animal Locomotion (1887) are reproduced here. In addition, Muybridge's handmade and extremely rare first illustrated album, The Attitudes of Animals in Motion (1881), is reproduced in its entirety. A detailed chronology by British researcher Stephen Herbert throws new light on one of the most important pioneers of photography.
Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904), born in England but active as a photographer in the United States for most of his adventurous life, was a key figure in photographic history. On giant glass plates he captured the natural splendor of Yosemite and photographed panoramas of San Francisco. He notoriously shot and killed his wife's lover, but his fame was earned by solving the problems of short-time exposure – and exploiting its possibilities. His subsequent studies of human and animal movement became the ultimate passion of Muybridge, the chronophotographer and predecessor of cinema.
Hans Christian Adam studied psychology, art history and communication in Göttingen and Vienna. As a specialist in historical images, he has published numerous articles and books, including titles on travel and war photography. He is the author of Taschen’s Edward Sheriff Curtis: The North American Indian, Karl Blossfeldt, Eugène Atget: Paris and Berlin, Portrait of a City.
"Eine detaillierte Chronologie des britischen Muybridge-Biografen Stephen Herbert wirft neues Licht auf einen der wichtigsten Pioniere der Fotografie."
– Genussmaenner.de, Berlin, Germany
"Hans Christian Adam gilt nur zu Recht als Spezialist für historisches Bildmaterial. Mit seinem neuen Buch beweist er seine Liebe für Detail und Genauigkeit und nimmt den Leser mit auf eine Reise in den wilden Westen der Fotografie."
– Baunetz.de, Berlin, Germany
"Lucian Freud's old friend Francis Bacon was one of many artists much influenced by Eadweard Muybridge, the subject of Hans Christian Adam's Eadweard Muybridge: The Human and Animal Locomotion Photographs (TASCHEN). If you run his photographs in rapid succession, you can see our great-great-grandparents in the nude come jerkily to life. It's a strangely touching sight."
– Bloomberg.com, United States
"The Complete Locomotion Photographs d'Hans-Christian Adam Muybridge (1830-1904) fait date dans l'histoire de la photographie: grâce à une intervention d'une machinerie complexe, il décompose en de multiples images les mouvements de l'animal comme de l'homme. Cet énorme album reproduit l'intégralité de deux livres du photographe, Animal Locomotion et The Attitudes of Animal in Motion: des séries qu'on apprécie aujourd'hui plus pour leur poésie surannée que pour leur valeur scientifique. En complément, une biographie détaillée."
– Le Monde des Beaux Livres, Paris, France
"Historia del movimiento. Mucho más de lo que su aporte científico podría significar. Y es algo que se aprecia con sólo hojear la edición de este libro con buena parte de sus trabajos de cronofotografía, con la intención de documentar la descomposición del movimiento. [...] Aunque la edición de este libro sea inglés francés y alemán, la amplia colección de imágenes reunidas lo convierten en un libro deseable y hasta inagotable."
– Babelia, El País, Madrid, Spain
"Publishers TASCHEN have just released the book Eadweard Muybridge: The Human and Animal Locomotion Photographs, a 804-page, lavishly illustrated book about his movement series."
– Politiken, Copenhagen, Denmark
"Released to coincide with the current exhibition at the Tate Britain, the book explores Muybridge's early thinking about the anatomy and movement to his latest photographic experiments."
– Image Magazine, Association of Photographers, London, United Kingdom
"Beau livre Eadweard Muybridge et la locomotion. Sa photographie entretenait des buts avant tout scientifiques. Seulement voilà! Un siècle après la mort de l'Anglo-Américain Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904), ses planches illustrant la locomotion humaine et animale se voient considérées comme des œuvres d'art à part entière [...] C'est à ce titre que les Editions TASCHEN, qui n'ont jamais eu peur du livre énorme et très lourd, viennent de sortir un pavé pour la fin de l'année. Le texte (en français, allemand et anglais) est dû au spécialiste Hans Christian Adam. C'est savant. L'essentiel de cet album oblong se voit cependant voué aux images. On boxe, on court ou on joue à la balle. Et, la science excusant l'audace, ces messieurs dames sont souvent tout nus. Eloignez les enfants!"
– Tribune de Genève, Genève, Switzerland
"Souvent reproduite, l'œuvre du photographe anglais Eadweard Muybridge est aujourd'hui éditée chez TASCHEN dans une ambitieuse anthologie 'horizontale'. Un format idéal pour les célèbres séries de clichés en noir et blanc de l'artiste qui décomposent les mouvements humains ou animaux."
– Myboox.fr, France
"Le père de la décomposition du mouvement des animaux et des êtres humains, c'est lui, Eadweard Muybridge. Inventeur d'un système complexe capable de réaliser des arrêts sur l'image dès 1872, ce photographe anglais a publié quelques années plus tard un ouvrage rassemblant quelque 781 planches, toutes reproduites dans cet ouvrage."
– Compétence Photo, Ecuelles, France
"Cette galerie de personnages délicieusement surannée suffit à elle seule à donner toute sa saveur au feuilletage de cet objet fascinant et plein de charme."
– Weekend Le Vif l'Express, Bruxelles, Belgium
"Gigantisches-Opus zum Pionier der fotografischen Bewegungsstudien. Stellt das Muybridge'sche Lebenswerk vor und würdigt es."
– fotoMagazin, Hamburg, Germany
"Grazie alla conoscenza di Leland Stanford, Eadweard Muybridge cominciò il lavoro per il quale doveva assurgere alla notorietà e che TASCHEN ripropone ad un prezzo appetibilissimo, in specie perchè l'originale è di arduo reperimento anche nelle biblioteche più fornite."
– Exibart, Torino, Italy
"Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) was a photographic pioneer; famed for his stop-motion studies of human and animal locomotion [...] As well as lecturing extensively Muybridge published his photographic studies in books such as The Horse in Motion (1878) Animal Locomotion (1887) and The Human Figure in Motion (1901). Although the scientific value of his work has been disputed, there is no doubt of his lasting influence on artists from Degas to Francs Bacon. Choreographers too have found him a source of inspiration, drawn to his sequences of pure, frozen movement [...] Muybridge's images have a wonderful way of revealing the physicality of movement –suddenly, you see the trust of motion. Some sequences capture the body at an acute angle, or with the weight so far ahead of itself is has to go forward – there's no possibility of return.. Muybridge's photographs reveal the extremity in the most unexceptional of actions: simply walking or running. There are certain moments when you see them laid out in front of you – it is quite wonderful. You can only observe this if you slow them down or stop the movement [...] To my surprise when u look at the series about human movement, the dancers are actually the least interesting. With the 'fancy' dancer – and also with Muybridge's nudes – you sense a self consciousness in the model – that seems to inhibit the movement. When the model sees himself from the outside movement doesn't quite move the same way – the second you think about it, you become self-conscious and freeze. You have to invest you attention in something else for the movement to be spontaneous and full-blooded, to reveal itself; it can be the simplest of tasks like walking, running, jumping, throwing. Would motion studies of ballet dancing be more compelling than the 'fancy dancing'? Perhaps, if Muybridge had captured a full bodied leap [...] Ballet is only truly interesting when the dancers move – otherwise it's only a series of 19th-century poses. Lovely as an image, perhaps, but it's not what gives us a kick. We wouldn't go unless they moved [...] the most interesting Muybridge studies remind us that movement is a force, not just an action performed by a body [...] the body suddenly looks strangely unfamiliar and imbued with a tremendous force and a power. You see a flash of an unimagined potential you wouldn't see when encountering the action or the body in flesh."
– Kim Brandstrup, Royal Ballet choreographer, Dance Gazette, Royal Academy of Dance, London, United Kingdom
"La apuesta que cambió la fotografía. Un libro sobre Muybridge recuerda cómo este pionero abuelo del efecto Matrix captó por primera vez las fases de la carrera de un caballo. ( [...] ) Así desde sus primeras ideas sobre anatomía y movimiento hasta sus últimos experimentos fotográficos, la obra editada por TASCHEN reproduce al completo las 781 láminas del rompedor Animal Locomotion (1887)."
– Grupo Vocento, Madrid, Spain
"Serienbilder von Mensch und Tier in vielerlei Bewegung machten Muybridge zum Pionier der Wissenschaftsfotografie und waren Vorläufer des Films. Dieser Band zeigt Hunderte seiner als Kunstwerke noch immer faszinierenden Bildreihen."
– Vogue, München, Germany
"Muybridge was the first person to recognise the potential for photography to convey movement, speed and vitality and produced a plethora of fabulous images of man and beast racing around."
– The Independent, London, United Kingdom
"Il a été le premier à traduire par la photographie un mouvement linéaire et continu: imposante monographie d'Eadward Muybridge qui privilégie ses célèbres Human and Animal Locomotion Photographs [...] H.C Adams rappelle que Muybridge fut considéré longtemps davantage comme un scientifique que comme un artiste. On peut en débattre, mais il ouvre cependant une voie considérable à l'image en mouvement qui préfigure le cinéma."
– Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, Strasbourg, France
"L'ossessione del movimento, le meraviglie del movimento. Il fotografo inglese Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) ha passato la vita a studiare il movimento umano e animale, ritraendo centinaia di fotogrammi di persone che corrono, camminano, tirano di box, di scherma [...] Un affascinante volume ora raccoglie le sue opere antesignane del cinema 'Eadweard Muybridge' di Hans Christian Adam."
– L'Unità, Roma, Italy
"Wer sich für die Geschichte der Fotografie interessiert, stößt früher oder später auf Eadweard Muybridge. [...] Ein sagenhafter 804-Seiten-starker Bildband mit spannenden bis amüsanten Einblicken."
– DigitalPHOTO, Kiel, Germany
"Eine sachkundige Einführung erläutert den künstlerischen Stellenwert von Muybridge, die detaillierte Chronik folgt den Spuren des Fotopioniers."
– Orthopädie & Rheuma, Hamburg, Germany
"Ein opulenter Bildband feiert Leben und Werk von Eadweard Muybridge, dem Urvater des bewegten Bildes."
– Du + Ich, Berlin, Germany
" [...] Cominciamo da questo libro-meraviglia in formato orizzontale dedicato a Muybridge cronofotografo (1830-1904), figura di primo piano della storia della fotografia. [...] Rivelò quello che l'occhio umano non poteva cogliere: una verità che nessun pittore dell'epoca avrebbe osato rappresentare anche se vi fosse mai riuscito, come spiega Adam nella sua lunga introduzione. [...] Muybridge [...] prefigurò l'avvento del cinematografo. La meraviglia del reale nel cinema [...] la meraviglia dell'irreale nel fumetto [...] La verginità dello sguardo, in due opposti."
– Internazionale, Roma, Italy
"Der opulente Bildband widmet sich ganz der vermeintlichen Aura einer absoluten Objektivität, die Muybridge der Fotografie verlieh."
– Die Märkische, Potsdam, Germany
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