Plate Number 430. Toilet; taking off clothes 1887

Eadweard Muybridge made this photographic study, "Toilet; taking off clothes", around the 1880s. It's part of his larger project to capture and analyze human and animal movement. The image creates meaning through its visual codes. Notice the model removing her clothes, framed against a grid. This grid is crucial; it transforms a private act into a scientific study. Muybridge was working in a time when science was seen as a tool for understanding and controlling the world. His work was funded by institutions seeking to understand human locomotion, with applications in fields like medicine and sports. But consider the social context: a woman undressing, dissected and displayed. This raises questions about the politics of looking, and the power dynamics inherent in scientific observation. To understand Muybridge fully, we need to look at period documents and institutional records. Only then can we grasp the complex social forces that shaped his art.