Muybridge

Muybridge helped evolve motion picture by using a series of photographs to study different kinds of movement, as well as creating a device to project those photos. He invented the zoopraxiscope, which allowed similar images to be projected to create the illusion of motion. His work had a distinct flair with its repetition and contemporary feel, which went on to influence countless artists from Degas to Sol Lewitt and U2. In his early years, he photographed trees and landscapes, images that would go on to inspire world-class photographers like Ansel Adams. He also created an encyclopedia of motion where he photographed dozens of animals, people, and birds, with the intention of breaking down how they moved for science. I found Muybridge's life to be the most interesting because in the span of expanding the world of motion picture, he also murdered a man, abandoned his child, and still got acquitted in court.