Trivia, in the Autumn of 1879

[Kasept]

Curt,

The pioneer work you're refering to is "The Horse in Motion" by Edward Muybridge. Muybridge was a photographer famed for his studies of the Sierras and the American West after the Civil War. Leland Stanford's interest came from the debate of the era as to whether horses feet all left the ground at any time while trotting or galloping. His horse Occident was the subject of Muybridge's series of photographs with a series of timed cameras. It's a landmark work that gave rise to advances in motion picture technology.

Muybridge is a fascinating guy on a number of fronts in American Art and Photography and was involved in a famed murder case involving his wife's lover. His friendship with Thomas Eakins, one of my favorite artists, helped foster Eakins own famous photographic studies. Eakins is best known for his great images of rowers on the Schuylkill.