First Photos of Movement Photograph by Eadweard Muybridge The
settling of a debate—whether, during its gait, all four of a
horse's hooves are simultaneously off the ground—first spurred
English photographer Eadweard Muybridge in 1872 to look for a
way to capture the sequence of movement. It took six years, but
in 1878, Muybridge succeeded. He arranged 12 trip-wire cameras
along a racetrack in the path of a galloping horse. The
resulting photo sequence proved that there is a point when no
hooves touch the ground and set the stage for the first motion
pictures.