A Horse Is A Horse II
by Deena Stoddard
Title
A Horse Is A Horse II
Artist
Deena Stoddard
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
For people who have never been involved with horses, it is easy to assume all they need is some hay every now and then, a field to run around on, and a preteen girl or two to swoon over them. This could not be further from the truth.Horses are used for various competitions and sports, breeding, recreation, and plain old work. It takes a lot more than just a farmer and a plow to keep the show running. In fact, horses are a massive business. Approximately 4.6 million Americans work in the horse industry in one way or another. The US horse industry is estimated to have an economic effect of $39 billion annually. That is just the measly nine million American horses. There are approximately 58 million horses in the world and the vast majority of them are cared for by humans.
Horses have helped with many of mankind's greatest achievements, from conquering the Wild West to the postal system of ancient Mongolia, but did you know horses have also played a part in the invention of movie technology? It started in the 1870s, with a man named Leland Stanford. He was convinced that, at some point in the gallop, all four of the horse's legs simultaneously leave the ground. His claim was met with skepticism, as horses are huge creatures that they surely must have at least some contact to the ground at all times. Certain of his cause, Stanford made a bet that he could provide indisputable evidence of its veracity.
Stanford recruited photographer Eadweard Muybridge to help him in his mission. Muybridge, however, realized that camera technology at the time was far too clumsy to capture the horse at the exact time all its hooves leave the ground. Far from deterring him, he employed a completely new photography technique to accomplish his goal. He set up a series of 24 cameras side by side, each taking a picture right after the other, capturing the famed racehorse called Sallie Gardner in 24 different stages of the gallop. This not only proved Stanford's claim, that Sallie Gardner could indeed be seen with all four legs off the ground, creating the illusion that she was flying,but essentially created a 24-frame animated film. Intrigued by his new technique, he also invented the Zoopractiscope, a motion picture machine for viewing said film.
All images © 2011-2020 Deena Stoddard ~ All Rights Reserved
Uploaded
November 18th, 2012
Embed
Share
