Poll Answer: What was Eadweard Muybridge photographing when he developed a technique that became the basis for the movie camera?

In 1872, Californian governor Leland Stanford hired English photographer Eadweard Muybridge to capture the movement of horses. He wanted to prove a galloping horse always had at least one foot on the ground.

Muybridge set up 12 cameras at a Sacramento racetrack to photograph a galloping horse. He put the images on a rotating disc and shined a light through them. Not only did it prove that a galloping horse sometimes has all fours off the ground, but the photographic technique became the basis for the movie camera.

The 12 photos taken by Muybridge