I returned to see "Helios - Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change" at San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art last week.  The first time I visited the exhibition I was overwhelmed - by the sheer number of images displayed (over 100) and, because it was soon after opening, overwhelmed by the crowds.  I'm glad I went back. 

The exhibit is an extensive representation of Muybridge's accomplishments as a photographer.  Born in England in 1830, he is best known for his photographic achievements in California.  In addition to his human and animal locomotion photographs, the exhibit includes his 19th century landscapes of Yosemite National Park and the city of San Francisco. 

Rebecca Solnit noted when this exhibit was at the Corcoran that, "Muybridge's lifespan from 1830 to 1904 really spans from the beginning of railroads to the rise of the automobile and the early experiments in aviation, as well as the birth of photography.  He is born before the birth of photography and dies after the achievement of motion pictures as we know them now in their essential form.  So just in his life span alone is the life span of perhaps the greatest technological change in the history of the world."  (PBS NewsHour, 5/5/2010)

Solnit is the author of the biography River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West, which is recommended if you want to learn more about the life and accomplishments of this extraordinary man.  The Muybridge exhibit continues at SF MOMA through June 7, 2011.

Click on my photo at left to return to my SMArt Page home, or www.rskidmore.com to return to my website.