Progress in Movement

Progress in Movement

Curated, written, and designed by Allison Usavage

This exhibition is not meant to be a complete dis-play of famous photographs showing motion in photography, but rather an overview of the growth and maturation of ways movement has been used throughout photographic history to depict the artist’s intended message. From Muybridge’s sci-entific experiments through Avedon’s innovations in fashion photography, motion has been used throughout the history of photography in various ways.

The images used in the exhibition are well-known to most in the photographic community, but we ask you to take a second look at the innovative ways that motion is used. For example, the cover image by Edgerton was taken with a scientific in-tent, but wound up being a dominant icon of the post-modern photography movement. This exhibi-tion contains milestones in scientific motion stud-ies, fine art, and everything in between, and weaves them all together using the common theme of the capture of form and locomotion.

After years of photographic success in the West, Muybridge was hired by

former Governor of California Leland Stanford to prove whether all four of a horse’s hooves leave the ground at the

same time during a gallop. Muybridge not only proved this theory of “unsup-

ported transit,” but revolutionalized the concept of scientific photography and

motion studies.

Eadweard Muybridge“Horse in Motion,” 1878Albumen print

Etienne Jules Marey“Lunging Fencer, Chronophotograph,” 1885

Albumen print

“Lunging Fencer” is one of the first chonophotographs created by Marey. Chronophotography was the precur-sor to cinema. This image consists of consecutive images exposed on the same plate at a speed of 50 per sec-ond. Taken for scientific purposes and as a study of the human anatomy and movement, “Lunging Fencer” is one of Marey’s well-known images and therefore an icon of the beginning of multiple exposure.

Jacques-Henri Lartigue“Grand Prix Race,” 1912Gelatin silver print

With experience handling a camera since age six, Lartigue took this pho-tograph when he was a mere 18 years

old. The imagery in “Grand Prix Race” was simply an expression of his youth-

ful spirit and the activities in his life, but has come to be known as an icon

of what opportunities the new photo-graphic processes of the 20th century presented photographers with, in re-

gards to exposure time and portability.

Anton Giulio Bragaglia“The Slap,” 1913

Gelatin silver print

Bragaglia experimented with what he called photodynamism–a study of the treatment of motion in photogra-phy and cinematography. “The Slap” conveys Bragaglia’s influence on the Futurist movement in European art, which highlighted man’s power over na-ture and a strong sense of nationalism. The Futurist painters were struggling to find methods of showing motion while displaying solid form, and Bragaglia’s photographs influenced their style.

Frank Gilbreth“Chronocyclegraph of Woman Stacking Buttons,” 1917Gelatin silver print

Primarily an advocate of scientific man-agement in factory settings, Gilbreth

used photography to increase produc-tivity. “Chronocylclegraph of a Woman

Stacking Buttons” shows Gilbreth’s technique of attaching small light bulbs

to the fingers of workers, in this case a woman in a button factory. The studies

would be performed on the most efficient workers, in an effort to un-

derstand the motions that made them efficient and subsequently teach others

in the workplace.

Henri Cartier-Bresson“Behind the Gare Saint Lazare, Paris,” 1932


Cartier-Bresson’s idea of a good pho-tograph was one that caught a decisive moment in time. The capture of this decisive moment, “Behind the Gare Saint Lazare, Paris” made history as one of the most famous photographs of the era. Cartier-Bresson is quoted as saying, “The moment - once you miss it, it is gone forever.” The image embodies the concept of capturing the moment, whatever it may be, always being atten-tive to your surroundings, and having a good sense of timing.

Barbara Morgan“Martha Graham in ‘Letter to the World’,” 1941Gelatin silver print

Morgan’s interest in every type of art helped fuse the movement of dance

and the capture of movement of pho-tography. Morgan captured complex

movements by famous dancers such as Martha Graham, and photographed

them with a fast shutter speed, creating frozen images that were based on form

and fluidity rather than the the focus of a dance performance, which is not

about the moment but the continuous motion.

Gjon Mili“The Lindy Hop,” 1943


Known as the first photographer to use strobes for more than scientific pur-pose, Mili is famous not only for his photographs of dancers and athletes in motion but portraits as an editorial photographer for LIFE magazine. “The Lindy Hop” is an example of an image made for artistic purposes, using the latest in flash technology to freeze a motion that otherwise would have been difficult to capture. The photograph is a culmination of Mili’s mastery of strobe and shutter timing, as well as composi-tion and form.

Harold E. Edgerton“.30 Bullet Piercing an Apple,” 1964Dye transfer print

Edgerton is known to have brought scientific photography to the public in an aesthetically pleasing way. He

perfected a strobe system based on the synchronization of turning engine

rotors with short burst of light. By bringing scientific images to the public, he furthered the post-modernist move-

ment by mixing classic form and new structures of art.

Richard Avedon“Twiggy,” 1968


Richard Avedon photographed every-one from prarie girls to supermodels, as in this photo “Twiggy.” His use of movement in his photographs revolu-tionized fashion photography, straying away from posing the model in classic ways to capturing the movement of the style and the clothing.

Modern photographers have made leaps and bounds in the way motion is captured in pho-tography. Technological advancements have allowed strobe durations to be up to 1/20,000 of a second, making them capable of freezing a hummingbird in motion or microscopic water droplets. Two photographers that have made leaps and bounds in the artistic combination of motion and art are Shinichi Maruyama and Andrew Zuckerman. Zucker-man’s unique way of capturing exquisite motion and form in animal locomotion relates back to Muybridge’s original motion studies of animals, and Maruyama’s photos

reflect the artistic combination of

principles of physics and art used in Edger-ton’s innovative strobe photographs. Both use digital capture and post processing, but the same principles apply to the creation of the images, regardless of the medium.

Documents

Progress in Movement