Eadweard Muybridge exhibition opens at Tate Britain
WHAT do you do if you discover your wife has taken a lover? If you are 19th century photographer Eadweard Muybridge you would shoot him and put their child in an orphanage.
You would are also be acquitted of the crime as a "justifiable homicide" and have an opera written about you by Philip Glass.
Eadweard Muybridge, Fencing. (Movements. Male). Plate 349, 1887 1887,
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Museum Purchase, 87.7.334
The pioneering Anglo-American photographer (1830-1904) is the subject of a major retrospective opening today at Tate Britain. It brings together more than 150 works, demonstrating how Muybridge broke new ground in the emerging art form of photography.
Among them are his iconic images of motion to depictions of the sublime landscapes of America.
Eadweard Muybridge, Leland Stanford, Jr. on his Pony "Gypsy"-- Phases of a Stride
by a Pony While Cantering 1879, Wilson Centre for Photography
Born in Kingston upon Thames in April 1830, Muybridge studied photography before building his career in America. He was also a highly successful landscape and survey photographer, documentary artist, war correspondent and inventor.
His revolutionary techniques produced timeless images that have profoundly influenced generations of photographers, filmmakers and artists, including Francis Bacon, Marcel Duchamp, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, and Douglas Gordon.
Eadweard Muybridge, Contemplation Rock, Glacier Point (1385) 1872,
Collection of California Historical Society
Muybridge travelled between Britain, America and Europe throughout his career, studying photography, and later lecturing around the world. He died in 1874.
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Laura Davis
As the Liverpool Post's Arts Editor, Laura covers theatre, music, dance and the visual arts in Merseyside and beyond. Contact her at laura.davis@liverpool.com
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