Plate Number 188. Dancing (fancy) 1887

Editor: We’re looking at "Plate Number 188. Dancing (fancy)" by Eadweard Muybridge, a gelatin silver print from 1887. The sequence of images, capturing a woman in motion, has a somewhat ethereal, almost ghostly quality, don't you think? It's like she's a spirit caught between frames. What do you see when you look at this piece? Curator: Ghostly is a good word! It reminds me a bit of a Victorian spirit photograph, ironically capturing what’s fleeting and ephemeral with this very modern technique. He was obsessed with stopping time and revealing what the human eye couldn't normally see! You could spend hours contemplating the different layers; technical wizardry combined with a fascination for movement, but also something melancholy – the sense of a performance, endlessly repeated for our consumption. Does the "fancy" dancing appear constrained in that grid format, do you think? Editor: Absolutely. I get this feeling of almost scientific detachment from the dance itself. Was he really interested in the art of dance or was it a subject to be studied? Curator: Oh, both, I think! Think of it like plucking a flower: part admiration, part examination, irrevocably altering the object of affection by dissecting it. He loved art, too, which makes the experiment even more fascinating. Don't you find his process beautiful and brutal at the same time? Editor: It's a strange paradox. I appreciate that you brought up the beauty in the experiment! Curator: Precisely! It’s those messy contradictions that makes this image so intriguing, even now. Editor: Definitely gives you a lot to think about beyond the surface. Curator: Precisely the dance with meaning!