The Human Figure in Motion

This book is a superb collection of still photos taken from films of various men, women and children doing just about any action one could think of. Extremely helpful for an artist, illustrator or animator as it provides a range of views of people in motion. Strongly recommended.

This is a classic artist's resource that belongs on the shelf of anyone who draws people, at all. This book is filled with thousands of pictures of people doing many, many diverse activities. All of the pictures are of nude people, so as to allow the muscles to be seen clearly. This makes these 19th century photos timeless. Never has anyone produced such a comprehensive reference of this sort, before, or since. He also produced classic works on the motion of animals, that you have probably seen before, whether you were aware that they were his works or not. Muybridge is a man for the ages. Hopefully, he will one day recieve the recognition that he deserves for his great contributions.

Its all covered in "The Human Figure in Motion". If you want Muybridge, may as well get a more comprehensive volume, eh?

Muybridge created an extremely comprehensive collection of photos of people engaged in normal activities. For example, he had men shouldering rifles, women walking up stairs, men playing baseball, a little kid crawling, people with disabilities walking, people carrying objects and so on. Not only were the collections in the form of sequences of shots showing the movement, but they were done from several angles at the same time, so you could see the activity (throwing a bucket of water) front, back and sideways.Some folks I knew at Autodesk scanned these images into their computers to test early versions of their Animator products. Others have made animated gifs out of Muybridge photos for their web pages. Others just sit and look at them because it's so interesting to see the care in these shots (not to mention all those charming Victorian hairdos :-)). My only (and this is only) beef with it is the images are quite small. It, and the companion book about animals are very useful and enjoyable, indeed, and there isn't a lot of chatter.

Muybridge's seemingly artless photography sequences are one of the great wonders of photography, fascinating & humorous. How else could one react to a series of photos showing a nude woman stepping on to a chair to pour cold water on to another? Or to two young men playing leap frog? Here are rather average bodies - by contemporary standards - throwing baseballs, kneeling & turning, heaving rocks, crawling, descending stairs, walking, running, carrying buckets, attempting a somersault while a pigeon crosses the path. The backgrounds of graphs & lines not only provide the artist's units of measurement, but establish a visual continuity more modern than he could have known. The Male and Female Figure in Motion is a classic collection, beautifully produced & inexpensively priced. Great for artists & lovers of photography, this volume is part of Dover Publication's Pictorial Archive series, which means you are free to use them in your arts & crafts or post them on web pages. Dover also offers a companion collection of Muybridge's important animal locomotion photographs. Bob Rixon