Plate Number 529. Various poses

Art Historical Context

Eadweard Muybridge’s *Plate Number 529. Various poses* (1887) belongs to his landmark *Animal Locomotion* series, a monumental photographic study of human and animal movement. Working at the University of Pennsylvania, Muybridge used banks of cameras triggered in rapid succession to freeze fleeting actions that the naked eye could not perceive. This particular plate presents a grid of sequential images showing a model shifting through different stances, transforming ordinary motion into a precise, almost scientific record. Printed as a collotype—a high-quality photographic process capable of rendering fine tonal gradations—the work bridges art and science. At roughly 17 inches wide, the elongated image captures multiple moments on a single sheet, inviting viewers to trace the body’s subtle changes in weight, balance, and posture. Muybridge’s methodical approach influenced painters, sculptors, and early filmmakers, laying groundwork for the motion picture. Acquired by the Corcoran Gallery the same year it was published, the plate remains a cornerstone of photography’s history at the National Gallery of Art. It reminds us how Muybridge turned the camera into a tool for discovery, forever altering our understanding of time and movement.

About the Artist

Eadweard Muybridge · 1830–1904

Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) was an English-American photographer who revolutionized the understanding of motion through his pioneering chronophotographic studies. Born Edward James Muggeridge in Kingston upon Thames, England, he emigrated to America and became famous first for his dramatic landscape photographs of Yosemite Valley, then for his groundbreaking motion studies that proved horses li...