Muybridge
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- USD 14.99
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- USD 14.99
Descripción editorial
How do you capture a changing world in the blink of an eye?
Sacramento, California, 1870. Pioneer photographer Eadweard Muybridge becomes
entangled in railroad robber baron Leland Stanford’s delusions of grandeur. Tasked with
proving Stanford’s belief that a horse’s hooves do not touch the ground while galloping at
full speed, Muybridge gets to work with his camera. In doing so, he inadvertently creates
one of the single most important technological advancements of our age—the invention of
time-lapse photography and the mechanical ability to capture motion.
Critically-acclaimed cartoonist Guy Delisle (Pyongyang, Hostage) returns with another
engrossing foray into nonfiction: a biography about Eadweard Muydbridge, the man who
made pictures move. Despite career breakthrough after career breakthrough, Muybridge
would only be hampered by betrayal, intrigue, and tragedy. Delisle’s keen eye for details
that often go unnoticed in search of a broader emotional truth brings this historical figure
and those around him to life through an uncompromising lens.
Translated from the French by Helge Dascher & Rob Aspinall, Muybridge turns a spotlight
on what lives in the shadow of an individual’s ambition for greatness, and proves that
Eadweard Muybridge deserves to be far more than just another historical footnote.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The fractious life of pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge is chronicled in this brisk but thorough graphic biography by Delisle (Factory Summers). Born in 1830, Muybridge sailed from London to the United States in 1850, where he found work as a bookseller and was thrilled by proto-photographic innovations like daguerreotypes. After recovering from an 1860 stagecoach accident that put him in a coma, he had prematurely gray hair, a newly cantankerous disposition, and a hungry curiosity. Muybridge emerges in Delisle's adroit rendering as an innovator with the mind of a mechanic, the soul of an artist, and a prophetic air. His painstakingly captured photos of Yosemite made him famous, and attracted the attention of railroad tycoon Leland Stanford, who had a hobbyist interest in determining if a galloping horses' hooves were ever all in the air at the same time. Several years, a million dollars, and one breakthrough idea (a dozen cameras snapping lightning-fast pictures) later, Muybridge proved the answer was yes. He kept innovating, arguably creating the pre-cinematic landscape well ahead of the Lumiere brothers and Thomas Edison, who received the fame and credit. Delisle draws with his usual comedic verve, and keeps the pace at a lively clip while weaving in significant research. Fans of Louis Riel and other comics cultural histories will find this well worth their time.
