Murals in Motion: A Tribute to Edward Muybridge

Tribute to Edward Muybridge by Eric Okdeh was part of the Murals in Motion series, an initiative of the City of Philadelphia Managing Director’s Office. Okdeh created this series of three murals as an homage to the 19th century English photographer Edward “Eadweard” Muybridge (1830 – 1904 Kingston-on-Thames, England). A contemporary of Thomas Edison, Muybridge was a pioneer photographer of the moving image. Okdeh’s mural is in three panels featuring a horse, a man, and a cyclist in different stages of motion against different backdrops of Philadelphia. The murals appear to be in motion when viewed from passing cars.

Muybridge photographed the first successful serial images of fast motion in June, 1878. The subject of these photographs was the trotting horse, Abe Edgington, harnessed to a sulky. The horse was owned by railroad builder and former governor, Leland Stanford. The original series of images proved Stanford’s theory that during a horse’s running stride, there is a moment of suspension where no hooves are touching the ground. What began as a topic of unresolvable debate among artists and horse enthusiasts managed to launch a new era in photography.

Location Note: Murals no longer on view at this location (painted out in 2023).