Do you know Eadwaerd Muybridge? If so, there is a high probability that you work in animation, because this field owes a lot to it. In fact, this Englishman, born in 1830, particularly distinguished himself in zoopraxography, the description of animal locomotion. And he was the first to break down a horse’s gallop into a photo.
This might seem a bit boring as a biography, but the most boring thing about Muybridge’s story is his long beard. Because otherwise, a lot of crazy things happened to the man whose appearance led many to think that they were dealing with a tramp. What is certain is that Guy Delisle tells his life story very well.
The Quebec author is known for his narrative talent, as we saw notably in “Burmese Chronicles” and “Jerusalem Chronicles,” where he recounted his experiences in these two places where he lived, following his wife who works for Doctors Without Borders. And, before making comics, Guy Delisle worked in animation. So he already knew Muybridge.
The album “For a fraction of a second” will obviously explain to us what brilliant techniques came out of the photographer’s brain to succeed, firstly, in breaking down the movement of a horse, then of many other animals and human gestures. afterwards. But added to a technical revolution is a crazy life. Muybridge spent 9 days in a coma following a stagecoach accident in the United States and his hair suddenly turned white. Not content with photographing horses, the Briton will also shoot… his wife’s lover and kill him.
But nothing can stop him. He wants to show an incredulous world that yes, a galloping horse, at one point, no longer touches the ground. His discoveries, as Guy Delisle explains, were useful for the birth of cinema and his techniques are still used, like the slow motion bullets in the film Matrix. And obviously, everything that makes animated cinema could be labeled Muybridge.
Never razor sharp, this album distracts while teaching us lots of things. Did you know that an army photographer, to test instant photography, allowing ultra-fast movement to be captured, had the strange idea of placing dynamite on the head of a mule and did it jump? The photo result is shown in the album, the poor animal still on its legs, but without a head.
Bravo also for the final page, Delisle breaking down the last seconds of Muylbridge digging in his garden at the time of his heart attack. Put into a flip book, these images would make a great animation. The comic has just been named in the selection of the Angoulême 2025 festival.
