280 + 4 ad pp. (Oblong folio) 23.4x30.5 cm (9¼x12"), rebound in mustard-color cloth lettered in gilt on spine.
Additional results of Muybridge’s experiments with instantaneous negatives. ”[From this]… several generations of artists acquired a repertory of a world of everyday [animated] experience, presented in detail by photography." [Frizot, New History Photography p.246.] This extensive work depicted men, women and children variously running, jumping, falling and carrying out athletic or mundane activities. This section of Muybridge's work reiterates the imperative he explored — positional change over time — as in “The Horse in Motion” and in his (1872-1885) masterpiece, “Animal Locomotion.”
The 19th Century in North America embodied strict racial hierarchies which helped unite the 'civilized' democratic world as a team, while validating the occupation of Native American land. This hierarchy included the negative representation of non-western people. Racial ideals were configured for a new generation of western individuals. Just as photography helped define non-western stereotypes, it helped inscribe a new set of aspirations for westerners. In his motion photography, Muybridge only used one non-white model - Ben Bailey - a mixed race male. Interestingly, Muybridge never used an anthropometric grid behind his subjects until he photographed Bailey, and never photographed the human figure without one afterwards [Brown, 2005 p. 637]. Grids were particularly useful in this way as they gave photographic work the 'aesthetic of science - dispassionate, orderly, coherent' [Solnit, 2003, p. 195] which helped boost the truth-value of the photograph, and therefore helped inscribe racial stereotypes.
Gridded photographs of Ben Bailey helped situate him as 'a racialised object,’ reinforcing common negative stereotypes of the time surrounding primitivism and hyper-virility through his particularly muscular frame [Brown, p. 638].
Condition:
Chip at head of spine, moderate soiling to covers, corners fraying a bit; half-title and final ad leaves repaired, occasional creases and some closed tears at edges (some repaired), mild soiling with some stains; about very good.