Plate Number 109. Ascending a stepladder 1887

Eadweard Muybridge made this photographic plate, titled "Ascending a stepladder," through a complex photographic process involving multiple cameras, around the late 19th century. The image shows a figure in motion, broken down into a series of sequential frames. Muybridge was interested in capturing and understanding movement and the way things happened in time. This project was an ambitious undertaking, requiring careful calibration of equipment and meticulous execution. The final print is created through the labor-intensive process of photography at that time, involving chemical baths and precise timing. The materiality of photography – light, chemicals, and paper – are all harnessed to create a new way of seeing. Muybridge sought to objectively analyze human and animal locomotion. By emphasizing process, we see this image not just as a scientific document, but also a cultural artifact – one that reflects both an obsession with capturing motion and the labor involved in its production. Muybridge blurred the lines between art and science, and high culture with everyday life.