Animal Locomotion, Plate 758

In the late 1870s, Eadweard Muybridge pioneered a method of "instantaneous photography," a technique developed to freeze time by capturing motion. In order to create such sequences, he set up a battery of cameras, 24 in this instance, connected by a clockwork mechanism that triggered the shutters one by one at rhythmic intervals. Muybridge initially devised this process to clarify the movement of horses; through his experiments, he demonstrated that all four hooves leave the ground mid-gallop, thereby settling an intense debate of the era. This print of a cockatoo in flight was originally published in Animal Locomotion, a portfolio of 781 separate series that Muybridge, working under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania, created to stand at the intersection of art and science.