The Horse in Motion, Eadweard Muybridge, 1878
The Horse in Motion is a photograph that used prepared glass plates, eliminating the need to use chemicals and decreasing the exposure time. It used a device called a zoopraxiscope. There are four rows and four columns of a horse and a jockey in profile – 16 still photographs combined in a series.
It was designed to settle the question of whether or not a horse ever takes all four legs completely off the ground during a gallop. The series of photographs also demonstrated the new photographic methods that were capable of nearly instantaneous exposure. They also bridged the gap between still photography and movies, and established the impressiveness and potential of photography.
The photograph had a great influence on painters. Photography had advanced far enough to be able to capture moments that the human eye couldn’t. The cameras snapped photos at evenly spaced points along a track, giving the effect of things happening in sequence.
https://sites.google.com/site/adairarthistory/iv-later-europe-and-americas/117-the-horse-in-motion-eadweard-muybridge
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/enlightenment-revolution/a/early-photography-nipce-talbot-and-muybridge