Athlete Running 1

The initial experiments in chronophotography excelled at capturing the silhouette of their subjects. However, the photographic clarity required to distinguish specific features of the individual in motion had yet to be perfected. As a result, works such as Athlete Running 1 (1881) tend to attract less praise for two reasons. First, the action depicted is common enough to suffer neglect through over-familiarity. Second, the blurring obscures the muscular detail necessary for its effective use in the study of locomotion. To this day, Eadweard Muybridge’s work is considered primarily within the history of cinema, highlighting how essential photographic precision is to rigorous scientific inquiry.