I have recently pull out some old work that was based on photographs by Eadweard Muybridge. His photographic career was long and varied but Muybridge is probably most well know for his studies of 'Animal Locomotion' where he used multiple cameras to capture motion in stop-action photographs, an early precursor to motions pictures. At the time I made this images I was drawn to his work for a variety of reasons, but one engaging aspect was the background grid against which he photographed many of his subjects. When I discovered his work I was already making photographic panoramas using multiple digital images and 'Photoshop' software. In order to fit separate photographs together I would often have to align them with one another and this made me consider how the idea of two and three point perspective is indicated in lens based image making. As a reaction to that I would often flatten my images, that is, in my mind make the photographic image parallel to the picture plane of the camera, (See my recent post entitled 'Alley Photograph'). Muybridge was indicating this concept by using a grid in the background of his motion studies, essentially flattening the image for scientific procedural purposes. I felt a connection with these studies and from a process standpoint these photographs called out to be digitally manipulated. By selecting individual images and manipulating them, my intention was to create something that Muybrige could not have anticipated, and to bring my own sensibility and sense of play to the final product.
An original Muybridge sequences photo.
Wikipedia entry on Muybridge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadweard_Muybridge
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