Plate Number 128. Descending stairs with hands clasped

Eadweard Muybridge

National Gallery of Art

This is a photograph of a sequential series of images capturing motion. The image is a collection of individual photographs arranged in two rows, showing an unclothed figure in various stages of walking down steps. Each frame presents a slightly different position. The background is a grid. The lighting highlights the contours of the figure’s form, and the grid provides a standardized backdrop for this examination of human locomotion.