Plate Number 92. Ascending stairs 1887

Curator: I find this 1887 gelatin silver print, “Plate Number 92. Ascending stairs,” by Eadweard Muybridge quite fascinating. It strikes me as a very clinical approach to understanding human movement. Editor: The clinical feeling is spot on. There’s something a little unnerving about seeing the figure dissected into such precise increments, like a specimen pinned to a board. The repetitive, almost dehumanized quality makes you think about how motion is studied, almost violated. Curator: Violations might not be the right word, even though the history of his project is undeniably rooted in complex sociopolitical factors related to race science and physical prowess. In this academic study, however, the woman embodies both strength and vulnerability. Her lack of clothing lends an honesty to the work; but also removes societal indicators to observe a pure mechanics. Editor: I get that it's easy to romanticize this work as an example of stripping away social constricts, or scientific "purity," but one also must acknowledge Muybridge's other less objective work photographing nude or partially nude formerly enslaved people, sometimes to highlight supposed "deformities." We have to be aware that science itself isn't objective and carries all the cultural baggage you can imagine. It changes how we might want to look at it. Curator: Certainly, that’s a valid point. It gives weight to the ethical implications that lie beneath the images’ surface. But it does highlight our tendency to seek a singular "truth" about an image’s interpretation. Editor: Absolutely. The arrangement of images, one above the other, in a grid like format does remind me of scientific observation and taxonomies though. It allows one to appreciate it on a purely visual level: light, shadow, movement through space... But at what expense to that aesthetic appreciation, considering our newfound contexts? Curator: Precisely. It leaves one wrestling with questions of representation, objectivity, and the very nature of seeing. It's uncomfortable and exciting. Editor: It truly does demonstrate the cultural weight any work, any symbol carries and collects through time. Thank you.