Sallie Gardner at a Gallop

Sallie Gardner at a Gallop is a series of photographs consisting of a galloping horse, the result of a photographic experiment by Eadweard Muybridge on June 15, 1878. Sometimes cited as an early silent film, the series and later experiments like it were precursors to the development of motion pictures. The series consists ofphotographs shot in rapid succession that were shown on a zoopraxiscope. Muybridge was commissioned by Leland Stanford, the industrialist and horseman, who was interested in gait analysis. The purpose of the shoot was to determine whether a galloping horse ever lifts all four feet completely off the ground during the gait at this speed, the human eye cannot break down the action.

During July 1877, the photographer Muybridge tried to settle Stanfords question with a series of progressively clearer, single photographs of Stanfords trotter, Occident, at a racingspeed gait at the Union Park Racetrack in Sacramento, California. He captured the horse in a photograph with all four feet off the ground. One of the prints was sent to the local California press, but because they found that the film negative was retouched, the press dismissed it. As negative retouching was acceptable and common practice at the time, the photograph won Muybridge an award at the Twelfth San Francisco Industrial Exhibition. Lantern slides of the trotting horse photographs survive.The following year, Stanford financed Muybridges next project to use multiple cameras to photograph a Thoroughbred at a gallop at Stanfords farm in Palo Alto on June 15, 1878, in the presence of the press. Muybridge photographed the businessmans Kentuckybred mare named Sallie Gardner running. ........

Source: Wikipedia