Muybridge – A Portrait

Eadweard Muybridge (9 April 1830 – 8 May 1904) was an English photographer important for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion. His work has had a big influence on artists particularly revealing difficult to see detail of bodies of humans and animals etc. in motion.

So why am I interested in his work?

A definition of motion is “a meaningful or expressive CHANGE in the position of a body”. My art is about CHANGE and the essence of CHANGE so I can easily relate to his work. Everything is changing all the time whether we see it or not.

The definition also happens to mention the expressive nature of change. This is a very important part of my work too. Showing CHANGE as an expressive act.

So with my portrait of this extraordinary man I have attempted to bring together several important aspects of my art. Firstly a tribute to a man of vision, a pioneer. Secondly a reference to the way he changed the way we see the world, like Cezanne, Picasso and others. Thirdly, the nature of change itself. How everything is evolving into something else all the time. And finally the expressive quality of change. How things are always breaking up, reforming, disintegrating and moving to form something new and different.

CHANGE is something many of us resist or are fearful of…. including myself. Often it involves pain. Nobody wants that. Yet to accept it as it really is…….. simply as a necessary part of growth to something new and better, it will transform our lives and help understand and accept the process of change. (Some may choose the negative attitude of change as worse or decline even though it must eventually lead to renewal). The bottom line is if we do not accept change LIFE will impose it upon us anyway.

Finally and most importantly we have power to influence the direction of the change. My art aims to show this too.