Woman Throwing Baseball

Woman Throwing Baseball (1887) is a collection of photographs depicting women repeating the action of kneeling to pick up a baseball and then throwing it high into the air. Featuring multiple female subjects of diverse ages and physiques, and captured from various angles, this study takes Eadweard Muybridge’s standard formula, extending it towards its natural conclusion. To analyse locomotion, the director understood that, from a scientific standpoint, conclusions must be drawn from more than one example. Furthermore, given the complex architecture of the human body, the same muscle groups needed to be captured from a range of viewpoints. In pursuing his research, Muybridge had unconsciously begun to write the rules of filmmaking by developing early, specific viewpoint techniques that enhance the continuity of visual narrative.