In this essay I am going to compare two movement photographers. The first being Eadweard Muybridge who pioneered capturing speed in photography. I will also discuss the impact that he had on the photography community.  The second is George Marriot who is a local photographer in Jersey who works on all types of photography but primarily photographs sport, specifically football and horse racing. I will discuss the technical aspect of photographing movement including how the technology has changed from Eadweard Muybridge’s time of work to present day.

The art of photographing movement has been made far more accessible with modern camera technology. For Example, when Muybridge created his photos, he had upwards of fifteen cameras called a zoopraxiscope set to take an image at a specific time. With modern technology however it is possible to set a camera to take continuous photos when the trigger button is pressed. This feature is called a motor drive. The term motor drive in the field of photography originated in film cameras where high end cameras would use an electric motor to spin the film reel once an image was taken unlike regular cameras where the user would need to use a manual lever. Shutter speed is probably the most important aspect of photographing moving objects. Shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter is open exposing the sensor. The two most important parts of movement photography depend on the speed of the shutter being perfect. These parts are light and blur. For the photographer to reduce blur in his image he must have a very fast shutter speed. However, if the shutter speed is too quick the sensor will not have time to collect enough light and the image will be too dark. This is also applicable in an opposite scenario. If the shutter speed is set too high. There will be plenty of light, yet the moving object will be blurry as is has moved a significant amount in the time she shutter is open. This is what makes movement photography so challenging as the photographer mut find the perfect balance between light and blur.

Eadweard Muybridge was an English photographer from the 1800s who made a name for himself in 1878 when he produced and published his most famous set of images. He showed the movement of a horse running using photographs. This photoshoot made use of a rig containing upwards of fifty cameras all set to trigger at the perfect time as the horse was in the centre. After researching Muybridge’s project, I found that the project was funded by Former California Governor Leland Stanford who wanted the photographs to settle a bet that horses have all four hoofs off the ground at the same time at one point in their gallop. After the success of his first photoshoot Eadweard began to experiment with photographing the motion of different objects. Using his stop-motion method he spent a lot of time photographing fencing. These images were incredibly interesting as they allowed people to see the details of actions, they would not be able to see with their naked eye. Eadweard Muybridge said “Only photography has been able to divide human life. into a series of moments, each of them has the value of a complete existence.” He said about how each one of the movements has the value of its own existence. This truly shows how passionate he was about his work as well as about his models. He also said that only photography has been able to divide human life. This could be meant in the literal sense being that the images are divided. I think that it is meant on a more metaphorical scale where the persons life can be divided into frames like a movie. Over the next few years Muybridge continued experimenting with stop motion photography.

George Marriot is a local jersey photographer who works for the jersey bulls. He has worked on many projects, personal and business, involving movement such as, rally, horse racing and football. George uses a canon EOS 750D as well as a canon 70-200mm telephoto lens. This setup is great for movement photography. The camera has a motor drive meaning he can take multiple consecutive photos in a very short period. This allows him to ensure he can capture a moment with a very short window. Additionally, the telephoto lens gives the ability to capture high quality images of subjects that are further away.

There are many similarities and differences between these two photographers. They are similar in the way that they are both showing movement in photography as well as using multiple images in sequence. It is their methods of creating the images that really separates them as photographers. Firstly, Muybridge used upwards of fifteen cameras mounted to a rig. This set up would be extremely expensive as well as very complicated to use as each camera would need to be reset with film.  Marriot however uses a single camera that takes multiple images. This method is a lot faster to set up and a lot less costly, as new cameras do not require film and do not take any time to reset. I find Muybridge photography to be more interesting due to it showing movement in multiple images rather than just the one that Marriot creates. This is because it is a much more unique style of presenting images. On the other hand, Georges images are much easier to present and look out as the viewer does not need to think. It is interesting that Muybridge decided to present his images as a collage rather than a single image. He could have layered the images to make an interesting holographic effect. That however would have been difficult due to the limitations of technology.

Bibliography

Animals in motion – Muybridge Eadweard, 1955, Dover Publications

Photography: A Cultural History, Marien, Mary Warner, 2006, Laurence King Publishing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadweard_Muybridge

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eadweard-Muybridge