Athlete Walking 1

Two men walk step by step in Eadweard Muybridge’s Athlete Walking 1 (1881). Their pace evokes the determination of two individuals intending to make history through the most ordinary of gestures. This chronophotographic study is clearly aimed less at scientific exploration and more at artistic performance. Muybridge was clear that his work was pioneering in the development of technology capable of capturing images in motion. His desire to render this study monumental is expressed through staged performances that speak with a loud history-making voice. The steps in this work stand with the pride we see in the statues of the Ancient World, signalling that new tools were announcing an art-form that was waiting to be born.