His Stop-Motion Photography Changed the World

Muybridge
Guy Delisle
Drawn & Quarterly (2025)

[Editor's note: Tyee culture editor Dorothy Woodend is hosting a public talk with graphic novelist Guy Delisle at the Vancouver Public Library May 27. They'll discuss 'Muybridge,' Delisle's latest work that traces the complicated life and lasting impact of Eadweard Muybridge, a legendary stop-motion photographer.]

I haven’t thought a lot about the legendary stop-motion photographer Eadweard Muybridge since I studied film animation at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design. But now I can’t stop thinking about him in the wake of celebrated Canadian graphic novelist and animator Guy Delisle’s new book about the famed photog. Muybridge, Delisle’s delightful, often deeply funny graphic novel is a wondrous book that dives into the birth of cinema, animation and movement itself.

Born on April 9, 1830 in Surrey, England, Muybridge adopted the odd spelling of his first name as an homage to his Anglo-Saxon heritage. After emigrating to the U.S. in his twenties, he worked as a bookseller before taking up photography. The basic facts of Muybridge’s life are more than enough for several books. He was an adventurer, a murderer, an artist, a world traveller, a hardcore curmudgeon and a genius.

I would also add failure to his list of achievements. This isn’t a bad thing — it speaks to the range of what the man attempted. Sometimes he fell flat on his face, and alongside the history-making triumphs in his life, there were screw-ups aplenty. Muybridge survived a near-fatal stagecoach accident, committed the ultimate crime of passion by murdering his wife’s lover (he was acquitted on the basis of justifiable homicide) and generally made a mess of things. In the process, truly world-changing ideas came into being. Delisle captures all the action in his utterly charming drawings.

The defining moment of Muybridge’s career came about when he met Leland Stanford. After making his fortune in railroads in the mid-1800s, Stanford turned his ambition and money to new projects, including proving once and for all what happens when a horse is in full gallop.

At the time, the U.S. was agog for new technological inventions. Stanford wanted in on the action. To combine his passion for horses and thirst for glory, Standford hired Muybridge to document in pictures the full cycle of a running horse. It was assumed that it was impossible for a horse to support its full weight without at least one foot on the ground. Artists often drew horses in with four legs outstretched, like they were in an odd yoga pose.

The idea of “unsupported transit”— meaning all four hooves lifted off in the air for an instant — was just a theory. But Stanford staked his reputation on proving it to be true. Over the course of five years, Muybridge tried and failed to realize this ambition. Then one day in 1878, Muybridge used a dozen cameras connected via trip wires to a track and finally got his proof.

In a series of time-lapse photographic images as thrilling today as they were almost 150 years ago, there it was: a horse floating in mid-air, borne aloft by the power of speed and momentum. A perfect miracle frozen in time.

After his experiment with horses, Muybridge turned his camera to capturing all kinds of movement, from animals to people. He produced stop-motion photography of athletes, labourers and naked women — all in the interests of science, don’t you know. As his fame grew, he presented his discovery in lectures across the U.S. and Europe.

In addition to the events of Muybridge’s life, Delisle captures the full scope of the 19th century through the people and personalities that brought about a period of almost seismic change. The book presents a fascinating gallery of influential folks from Thomas Edison to the Lumière brothers. Even Jack the Ripper pops up.

Alongside his drawings, Delisle punctuates his book with a series of photographs that capture the wonders and curiosities of the age, from Muybridge’s early landscapes that captivated the American public to more ghoulish stuff, like the short-lived trend of taking dead people’s portraits. The world’s first blue movie also gets its moment in the sun!

In the study of movement, Muybridge is the man. His images changed the art world and set in motion a series of other creative evolutions that gave birth to animation, cinema and ultimately, the world as we now know it.

And that’s just the beginning!

Join Guy Delisle in conversation with Tyee culture editor Dorothy Woodend in a public talk about the marvels that Eadweard Muybridge set in motion. The free event takes place at the Vancouver Public Library’s Central Branch on May 27. Register online to attend.