Eadward Muybridge // Art Talk

Currently an exhibition of the work of Eadward Muybridge, a photographer towards the end of the 1800's is being held at the Tate Britain. It is a refreshing 15 minutes walk from Victoria tube station. The entrance fee is less than £10, and the well-established Hoxton-based artist Rachel Whiteread is also there. Muybridges work includes repetitions of many animals, places and people. Animals in motion, beautiful photographs of places such as the west before it was won for example Yosemite valley and many elephants, perhaps prophetic in that environmentally animals need to be seen as repetitively reproducing. One of the most astonishing aspects of his work was the same status he accorded to people and animals i.e. "blacksmiths at work", several stills of naked men hammering out their work under anvils. In this Victorian era, it was perhaps shocking for the refined gentry, but we see although times change, anything goes!