New milestone for the MUN on its tenth anniversary: 60th exhibition with photographs by the precursor of cinema, Eadweard Muybridge

There are photographs that have marked a before and after in the history of photography and other artistic disciplines, such as cinema, and even science. This is the case of the work of the British photographer Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904), whose snapshots were pioneers in the appearance of the moving image and shed light on issues relevant to science. The Museo Universidad de Navarra today inaugurates an exhibition that presents a video projection and 56 photographs, which are the selection of an album composed of a total of 93. It is a loan from the collectors Ernesto Fernández Holmann and Marta Regina Fischer, a family member of the MUN's Board of Trustees.

At 7 p.m., Valentín Vallhonrat, curator of the exhibition together with Ignacio Miguéliz, will give a masterclass (free admission after collecting an invitation, on the web or at the box office) that will lead to the opening of the exhibition, in the Torre hall. Visits to the exhibitions are free throughout 2025, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the MUN, thanks to the collaboration of the Pamplona City Council.

Eadweard Muybridge was a pioneer in the representation of movement through his camera, before the invention of cinema. The event that made his name go down in history came in the 1870s with a challenge that, a priori, was unrelated to his work: that of resolving the debate as to whether horses lift all four legs off the ground at the same time when galloping. Muybridge clarified the question with an affirmative answer by using twenty-four aligned cameras, which made it possible to break down the movement of these animals into individual images, otherwise imperceptible to the human eye.

As Valentín Vallhonrat explains, he achieved "a system for breaking down movement into at least 24 frames per second". Thus, the compendium of 781 photographs that make up his work Animal Locomotion (1887) is his most emblematic work, and marked a before and after in the history of scientific photography, by documenting for the first time with precision the movements of people and a great variety of animals.

The exhibition that can be seen at the Museo Universidad de Navarra from today until August 24 brings together a selection of 56 photographs of various animals: his emblematic images of horses, plus camels, goats, elephants, dogs, lions, eagles and deer. Also, snapshots of men and women performing different movements and actions, such as picking up and lifting objects from the ground.

These works were the basis for the invention of cinema, since, as the curator says, Muybridge "included time in photography". He also points out that visualizing his images in a zoetrope -a device that allows images to pass at high speed- generated the optical effect of movement. Vallhonrat adds that Muybridge invented a system to project the photographs in movement, so we find in him the seed of cinema.

Muybridge's works paved the way for a multitude of painters and plastic artists who wished to capture dynamism, influencing names such as Rodin, Degas, Duchamp or Bacon. Vallhonrat points out one of the series included in the exhibition, that of a woman descending a staircase, which was surrounded by great controversy for depicting her nude. However, despite the controversy, the curator emphasizes that this proposal is the one that allowed the arrival of later emblematic works, which integrate in a single image different planes and facets of a body, such as Les Demoiselles d'Avignon ( Picasso, 1907) or Nude Descending a Staircase (Duchamp, 1912).

Muybridge's legacy was also of great relevance for sciences linked to the human body, such as anatomy, biomechanics or the manufacture of prostheses; without forgetting zoology and veterinary science. His photographs, therefore, serve as a link between art, knowledge and science.