Famed “Horse In Motion” Photography Inspires an 11-Person Tattoo Animation
The finished product! Courtesy of Evan Hawkins.
By: Brittany Bevis
Muybridge’s The Horse In Motion. (Public Domain image from The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.)
What does a famed 17th century photographer have in common with a designer from North Carolina? They’re both pioneers in their respective fields. Noted photographer, Eadweard Muybridge, created the precursor to the modern day motion picture in 1872 with his sequence of still images entitled “The Horse In Motion.”
Muybridge was hired by university founder, Leland Stanford, to determine if there is a moment in a horse’s stride when all four feet leave the ground. Using one of Stanford’s horses, “Sallie Gardner,” the photographer set up a complex system of 50 cameras, each with its own trip wire and specially designed rapid-fire shutter. The experiment resulted in a horse becoming the first animal to be captured in a moving picture (Wild Film History, 2014).
More than 100 years later, North Carolina-based designer, Evan Hawkins, used “Horse In Motion” as the inspiration for a stop motion tattoo animation that involved having eleven different people tattooed with eleven different frames of a horse in mid gallop.
The project’s creator, Evan Hawkins. Image courtesy of Evan Hawkins.
“I came up with the idea while talking to some friends about another tattoo project, where a woman wrote a short story and had every word tattooed on people,” Hawkins says. “I thought I could take that idea a step further and create an actual animation out of tattoos. I decided to use Eadweard Muybridge’s original photography “The Horse In Motion” because it was the birth of motion film, and this project is also the first of its kind.”
As the idea’s creator, Hawkins would get the first tattoo, but he still needed ten other willing participants. Thanks to some help from social media, the remaining spots were quickly filled.
“I only needed ten other people, but I posted an invite to 18 of my friends hoping that I could get ten of them to join me,” he says. “Within six hours, all ten tattoos had been spoken for.”
Number 7 of the 11 tattoo sequence. Image courtesy of Evan Hawkins.
On November 20, 2011, ten of the eleven participants were tattooed by Matt Hoyme at Liberty Tattoo in Winston Salem, North Carolina. The eleventh had his tattoo done in Austin, Texas. Participants included Evan H., Kait N., Jay D., Jason B., Laura L., Liz S., Andrew F., Eric S., Sarah B., Taylor W., and Caleb W.
When all of the tattoos were complete, Hawkins photographed each participant and created a stop motion animation that brings “The Horse In Motion” to life. What to see how it turned out? Click here to watch the animation.
“I have been blown away by the response to this piece,” Hawkins says. “I hope to gain enough attention and interest from this project to create a much longer tattoo animation involving thousands of people and thousands of tattoos around the world! I hope to start fundraising and applying for grants ASAP!”
To learn more about this unique project, visit horseinmotion.eh84.com/.
