Plate Number 93. Ascending stairs

Art Historical Context

Step into the groundbreaking world of motion photography with *Plate Number 93. Ascending Stairs* by Eadweard Muybridge, created in 1887. This collotype print, part of Muybridge's monumental *Animal Locomotion* series, captures a sequence of a nude figure gracefully ascending stairs, freezing everyday movement into 12 precise frames. Muybridge, a pioneering British-American photographer, revolutionized visual science after proving in the 1870s that a trotting horse lifts all four hooves off the ground—sparking his lifelong quest to dissect motion through chronophotography. Printed via collotype, a meticulous photomechanical process that allowed faithful reproduction of fine details on a large 47.8 × 60.4 cm sheet, this image exemplifies Muybridge's innovative technique. Using multiple cameras triggered in rapid succession, he transformed static photography into a dynamic narrative, influencing early filmmakers like the Lumière brothers and Eadweard Muybridge's own zoopraxiscope projections. Acquired by the Corcoran Gallery in 1887 and now in the National Gallery of Art's Corcoran Collection, this plate not only advanced scientific study of human gait but also bridged art and technology, inviting viewers to ponder the poetry in our most ordinary steps. A true precursor to cinema, it reminds us how Muybridge turned curiosity into visual poetry.

About the Artist

Eadweard Muybridge · 1830–1904

Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) was an English-American photographer who revolutionized the understanding of motion through his pioneering chronophotographic studies. Born Edward James Muggeridge in Kingston upon Thames, England, he emigrated to America and became famous first for his dramatic landscape photographs of Yosemite Valley, then for his groundbreaking motion studies that proved horses li...