Athlete Back Summersault 1

Eadweard Muybridge’s early studies of locomotion will always impress with their ambition. At a time when photographs required longer exposure times, capturing rapid movement such as that shown in Athlete Back Summersault 1 (1881) was a technological feat. What it lacks in clarity, this sequence of photographs succeeds in conveying athletic skill. Stitching the frames together and projecting them rapidly in a loop creates the perception of a human body levitating continuously in the air. If we compare this with Émile Reynaud’s drawings in The Trapeze (1878), we are compelled to acknowledge the superiority of Muybridge’s work, achieved through reliance on available technology to capture continuity with remarkable precision.