Sequential Photography of Edward Muybridge - Essay Example

?Edward Muybridge – 19th c. sequential photography Eadweard James Muybridge or Edward Muybridge was a British photographer, but carried out his work and spent majority of his life time in United States, particularly California. After immigration to US, he became famous when he took large photographs of the Yosemite Valley in California. After that initial success, he became sought after, and a railroad magnate Leland Stanford “hired him to prove that during a particular moment in a trotting horse’s gait, all four legs are off the ground simultaneously.” (“Eadweard Muybridge”).The human eye was not able to come to a conclusion regarding this hypothesis, so Stanford hired Muybridge to support his assertion. Muybridge through a series of photographs featuring a galloping horse supported Stanford’s assertion of how during a full gallop, the horse’s front and the hind legs extended maximally, thereby making it off the ground. Muybridge further supported this assertion of “unsupported transit” through the use of more technical equipments, like zoopraxiscope. It is “a lantern he developed that projected images in rapid succession onto a screen from photographs printed on a rotating glass disc, producing the illusion of moving pictures.” (“Eadweard Muybridge”). When he showed the horses’ gallop in a fast moving manner through zoopraxiscope, he was able to convince many regarding the unsupported transit theory. Thus, Muybridge photographic study on animal locomotion is a path breaking one, not attempted by other photographs and it led to the formation of various give scientific theories regarding animal locomotion. In addition, it also had cultural impacts in the way horses were looked and trained. Muybridge’s development of Zoopraxiscope and the resultant running images acted as the inspiration for the development of movie cameras and thereby development of cinemas. “Zoopraxiscope is an important predecessor of the modern cinema” (“Eadweard Muybridge”). Although we know Lumiere Brothers has the developers of the first cinema, the role of Muybridge in that evolution cannot be overlooked. George Melies – early film Georges Melies was a French magician and filmmaker, who is known for his innovative technical tricks in filmmaking, and other narrative developments during the initial stages of filmmaking. He started his foray into the entertainment business by purchasing Theatre Robert Houdin. There he conducted performances which revolved around magic tricks as well as illusionist techniques, thereby bringing out an interesting aspect of French Culture. When the Lumiere brothers showcased their first moving picture and the camera, which captured those pictures, Melies wanted to buy that camera. As there was no favorable response from the Lumiere brothers, Melies purchased another motion picture camera from UK, and started making his own films. “Melies' first films were straightforward cityscapes and event films, but soon he was using the camera to document magic acts and gags from the stage of the Theatre Robert-Houdin” (Larson). Even while making those sorts of films, purely by accident Melies discovered how the camera can be manipulated to create special efforts. He expanded those initial tricks to come up with complex special effects. It was widely regarded that he only pioneered the first double exposure shots, the first split screen with actors acting opposite of themselves, and also the first dissolve through double or multiple exposure shots, “he was able to create an illusion of people and objects appearing and disappearing at will, or changing from one form to another.” (Larson). In addition, Melies was one of the key pioneers who by editing or stringing a series of independently shot scenes, made it into sizably long short films. Although, Mielies was not able to continuously achieve success in the cinema field, his is still regarded as one of the pioneers of the camera based special effects. . Shepard Fairey – design / graffiti Frank Shepard Fairey is an American Graphic designer and illustrator. Basically he is a well known street artist for nearly two decades. “The cult graphic artist Shepard Fairey has become one of the most visible practitioners of a guerilla-style art that has grown out of the graffiti scene.” (Shepard Fairey). Thus Shepard Fairey’s unique and powerful variety of work has reached all aspects of the visual culture right from the political posters to the T-Shirts and even the album covers. The creations of Shepard can be considered as unique and important because he features a wide variety of media such as screen prints, stencils, collages, stickers and also works on metal, wood and canvas. “These works reflect the diversity of Fairey’s aesthetic, displaying a variety of influence and references such as Soviet Propaganda, Psychedelic rock posters and images of Americana.” (“Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand”). From the above it is obvious that he uses his creations as a platform to depict and deliver messages on social issues which can be considered as the highlighted feature which sets his work apart from the other works in that medium. Moreover Shepard had created a cultural phenomenon and a new way of art making and production through his Obey project. He gained fame through his stylized “Hope Posters” of Barack Obama which became one of the best masterpieces and was much appreciated among the other images of the presidential campaign, during which Obama contested in the election. Thus he reveals that “Question Everything” is the genuine message he wanted to convey in most of his creations. Winsor McCay – early animation Winsor McCay was considered to be the pioneer in the animated films. He is a prolific and a talented cartoonist and animator. He considered animation as an art, and he developed and expressed the characters in a beautiful and elaborate manner and thereby he delighted the readers. “Another interesting aspect of McCay’s animation is its incorporation of live framing stories that emphasizes the novelty of the animated medium.” (Cummings 2004). In this regard his work can be considered to be unique and that set him apart from the other artists and their works. In his first work named Little Nemo, he drew nearly four thousand individual frames and later filmed that in a studio. Thus Little Nemo was very much appreciated by the audience for its naturalistic appearance of the characters. Another most remarkable creation of McCay was The Sinking of Lusitania which mainly focused on an incident which took place during the First World War on a American passenger ship by an German submarine. For this work he took two years to draw nearly twenty five thousand drawings. “This piece also shows his courage in attempting to depict a historical document of such a monumental and tragic event, which happened in minutes without any visual record whatsoever.” (Critical Viewings). Thus he was able to depict the historical events effectively during his time with the availability of limited technology. Thus, Winsor was considered to the Father of animation, who created extended motion films with realistic characters and with a great sense of humor. Even Walt Disney was influenced by the creations of Winsor McCay. Works Cited “Critical Viewings,” Teach Animation, n. d. Web. 2 May 2012. http://www.teachanimation.org/winsor.html Cummings, Doug. “Winsor McCay.” Film Journey.org, 17 August 2004. Web. 2 May 2012. http://filmjourney.weblogger.com/2004/08/17/winsor-mccay/ "Eadweard Muybridge". Encyclop?dia Britannica. Encyclop?dia Britannica Online. Encyclop?dia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 02 May. 2012 . Larson, E. H. Georges Melies, n. p. Feb 2006. “Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand.” The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, August 2009. Web. 2 May 2012. “Shepard Fairey.” The New York Times, 12 March 2009. Web. 2 May 2012. http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/f/shepard_fairey/index.html Read More