History

Muybridge-2

Edward James Muybridge was an Englishman born on April 9, 1830 in Kingston upon Thames, an ancient market town that is now part of Southwest London.  He spent most of his life in the United States where he changed his name twice: first to Muygridge and then to Eadweard Muybridge.  Today he is best known as Edward J. Muybridge, a pioneer in the photography of animal motion and a significant contributor to the early development of cinema photography.  Prior to his interest in documenting motion he was recognized as a successful commercial photographer in the western US (1866-80).  Around the time of his death, in 1904, he was studied by the nascent cubist movement. Marcel Duchamp claimed he was partially inspired by Muybridge in his famous painting Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912).