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Eadweard J. Muybridge - photographer



Carlton Watkins was not the only photographer working in Yosemite during this period. In fact there were many turning out mediocre works adequate for tourist trade prints. The only other photographer to elevate his work to the fine art status was Eadweard Muybridge, a flamboyant Englishman who came to San Francisco to set up shop as a book dealer in 1855 on Montgomery Street. He later began promoting the photographic works of Helios, a mysterious and anonymous photographer. The works were his, and gradually it became known that Muybridge had an artistic photographic talent that would soon rival Watkins. Muybridge had suffered a difficult injury when heading to the east coast by stage wagon, and in his convalescence in Europe, he developed his new photographic skills. When he returned to San Francisco in 1867 he was a changed man, and one with a new direction in life.

Like Watkins, Muybridge made expeditions into Yosemite, toting massive photographic equipment and complex supplies. He even took photographs at some of the same locations that Watkins had made famous. But the style of the two men's work was very different.

Muybridge brought a romanticism to his images, later adding painted or double exposed clouds and lighting effects. Watkins was a purist who only showed nature as it was in its most spectacular moments. Muybridge traveled to Yosemite on one trip with Albert Bierstadt, the world-renowned atmospheric painter and the two spent many hours learning about one another's approach to their landscape work. The romantic quality of the Muybridge works - captured on plates even larger than Watkins, propelled the work into the spotlight and eclipsed Watkins work for a time in popularity.

Muybridge's photographs caught the attention of Leland Stanford. Stanford, one of the Big Four, had made a bet that a racehorse, and one point in its stride, had all four feet off the ground. To prove this was true - and win the $25,000 bet - he hired Muybridge to develop a technique to capture and freeze motion in photography. Muybridge then found his life's greatest accomplishment, and became legendary as one of the earliest motion photographers in the world. He returned to England to live in 1892, became a lecturer and published his internationally acclaimed research on motion photography, becoming a legend in that new field.