Muybridge Weightlifters
We continue our look at the stop-motion photography of Eadweard Muybridge, published in his 1887 book Animal Locomotion. Muybridge did his work at the University of Pennsylvania, and his subjects were mostly students, graduates, or teachers at the university. Today we look at weightlifting.
Each plate in Animal Locomotion consists of a series of photos taken at split-second intervals. I made all of the gifs in this post from the photos on the plates.
There are no Muybridge plates of men lifting barbells. However, there are a few plates of men lifting dumbbells. Above is plate 325, labeled in Muybridge's catalog of plates as "Lifting and holding two 50-lb. dumb-bells." The model is #39. The catalog identifies models only by number, and I don't know who model 39 was. He looks too old to be a student, so he was probably a teacher at Penn.
Above is plate 326, called "Lifting 50-lb. dumb-bell at arm's length." In most of the plates, Muybridge photographed the action from two different angles. In plate 326 it was from the side and from the rear, and I'm showing the rear view for those who appreciate that perspective.
The model for plate 326 was model 30, and he has been identified as Penn student Thomas Love Latta, shown above as a senior in 1887. Latta was a baseball player at Penn, and Muybridge made several plates of him batting, catching and throwing, with full-frontal views, which you can see in my earlier post here.
Above is plate 488, simply labeled "dumb-bells." The model is model 96. I have no information on him.
We end with plate 489, "Ascending incline with 50-lb. dumb-bell." The model is not lifting the dumbbell, just carrying it. But this one is of special interest because the model is #95, described as an "ex-athlete, aged about 60." Model 95 is Muybridge himself. He was not ashamed to appear naked in his own book of motion studies.
7 comments:
Does the man in the 1st gif have an erection? Did that ever happen when Muybridge was working?
Doesn't look erect.
Thank you, Larry, for the rear view. It was very much appreciated. BTW, Muybridge has a very nice ass, too.
I sure do like that Muybridge photographed so many naked people back then.
In the top photo of the fellow with the dumbbells, it can almost look like he had an erection, but looking closely, it appears that he has a smaller penis resting on his scrotum. This is my assessment.
I wonder if male athletes today would volunteer for a similar "motion study" project?
The wonderful idea is seeing the movements of people so distant and remote in time, like this, for example.
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