Eadweard Muybridge

Eadweard Muybridge was a British photographer and inventor who is best known for his high-speed motion photography. He was born in 1830 with a name so difficult to spell that it’s a wonder anyone actually knows who he is. Luckily, he later changed his name to Eadweard Muybridge, which is still difficult to spell but at least sounds cooler.

Muybridge’s most famous work was the series of photographs that proved horses have all four feet off the ground when they gallop. Prior to this, many people believed that horses always had at least one foot on the ground. Thanks to Muybridge’s groundbreaking photography, people realized that horses are pretty much flying when they gallop, which is a pretty mind-blowing fact.

But Muybridge’s work wasn’t just limited to horses. He also captured motion in humans, including a series of nude photographs that were scandalous at the time. People were scandalized, not necessarily by the nudity, but by the fact that Muybridge had invented a device that could take a photo every 1/1000th of a second, meaning that he really captured every last detail of the human body in motion.

While Muybridge’s photography was groundbreaking, he was also a bit of a mad scientist. He once had a bet with a friend that he could create a method of photographing a horse in motion that didn’t require a horse. So he built a giant mechanical horse on rails that could be moved incrementally, allowing him to take pictures of the horse in motion. It’s unclear whether he won the bet, but we like to believe he did.

While Muybridge may not be a household name, his contributions to photography and motion studies have stood the test of time. Plus, he had a name that was so difficult to spell, it’s a wonder he accomplished anything at all.