Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904) was an English-born photographer whose experiments with sequential photography transformed understandings of movement and helped lay the groundwork for motion pictures. After settling in California, Muybridge became celebrated for dramatic photographs of Yosemite and the American West. In the 1870s, former California governor Leland Stanford commissioned him to photograph horses in motion and determine whether all four hooves left the ground simultaneously during a gallop. Using a series of cameras triggered in rapid succession, Muybridge captured movements too fast for the human eye to perceive. Muybridge later expanded his investigations to encompass hundreds of studies of animals and humans in motion. His zoopraxiscope projected sequences of images to create the illusion of movement. Combining scientific inquiry, technological experimentation and photography, Muybridge profoundly influenced the development of both motion studies and cinema.