The McMaster Museum of Art presents the work of Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904), an English-born, American-based photographer and inventor, also known as the “Father of the Motion Picture.”

After more than a century, the significance of his photographic studies of motion and their relevance to the world of art and science remain undiminished.

A pioneer in the field of photography in the 1860s, it was Muybridge's revolutionary photographs of animals in motion that first won him international recognition. In 1872, he was hired by Leland Stanford, the former Governor of California, to settle an argument about whether a trotting horse ever had all four feet off the ground at any one point in time. The widely published results and resulting controversy fueled Muybridge's research. With the support of the University of Pennsylvania, he was able to develop elaborate photographic systems including electromagnetic tripping devices, dry plates which would produce higher definition images, a motor clock that would allow him to take different views at the same time and his own invention, the zoopraxiscope, a lantern which allowed him to project images in rapid succession.

Over three years, Muybridge took more than 20,000 photographs of men, women, children, animals and birds. Of these images, 781 were published in the 1887 series Animal Locomotion. Thanks to a generous donation by Jack Greenwald, a selection of this series is now part of the McMaster University collection.

The McMaster Museum of Art is located on the campus of McMaster University at the corner of Sterling Street and University Avenue. Admission to the Museum and this special presentation is pay-what-you-can with a suggested donation of $2. Students, seniors and members are free.

Museum Hours:

• Tuesday – Friday 11-6;
• Thursday evening 7-9;
• Sunday 12-5

Phone: 905-525-9140 ext. 23081. Fax: 905-527-4548. E-mail: museum@mcmaster.ca