An exhibition of photographs by pioneering early photographer, Eadweard Muybridge will open at Beetles + Huxley in July. The exhibition will showcase 65 collotypes prints made by the artist in 1887, from his influential series Animal Locomotion, which features images of animals and people captured in mid-movement.

Muybridge made his most enduring work in the project Animal Locomotion between 1884 and 1887 for the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Each plate in the series shows the same subject in sequential phases of one action. Muybridge recorded varied forms of movement in a wide range of animals, mostly taken at Philadelphia zoo, from pigeons in flight to the subtleties of gait found in sloths, camels and capybaras. Muybridge also documented human subjects walking, running and descending staircases and engaging in boxing, fencing, weight lifting and wrestling. 

The works in this exhibition will collectively demonstrate how Animal Locomotion broke new ground in terms of both science and the emerging art form of photography. Muybridge’s work from this period has contributed to the science of physiology and biomechanics and the photographs have had a profound influence on a wide range of artists, including artists Marcel Duchamp, Francis Bacon, Jasper Johns and Cy Twombly.

Eadward Muybridge: Animal Locomotion runs from 18 July to 2 August 2017 at Beetles + Huxley, 3-5 Swallow Street, London, W1B 4DE. Admission is free.