Plate Number 125. Descending stairs 1887

Eadweard Muybridge made this photographic print, called "Plate Number 125. Descending stairs", to study human locomotion. In late 19th-century America, the project of objectively cataloging the visible world was central to the mission of institutions such as universities and museums. Photography provided a powerful tool for this ambition. Muybridge's images capture movement in discrete steps, a strategy enabled by new technologies of shutter speed and photographic sequencing. But what kind of knowledge do they produce? The serial presentation implies scientific precision, but also evokes older traditions of representing the human figure in classical sculpture and academic drawing. These images also raise questions about the ethics of representation. Note how this male figure is posed nude. What does it mean to display the human body in this way? By examining photography journals, exhibition reviews, and institutional records, historians can continue to explore the complex social and cultural forces at play in Muybridge's work.