Muybridge in Motion

1979

Muybridge in Motion, 1979. Mark Schwartz (American, 1956–2014). Gelatin silver print, gold-toned; matted: 39.4 x 24.1 cm (15 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.); framed: 53.3 x 43.2 cm (21 x 17 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift from the Collection of Mark Schwartz + Bettina Katz 2020.62 The contact sheet—a piece of photographic paper which contains positive prints of some or all of the negatives on a roll of film—was necessitated by the advent of roll film, which produced small negatives, and rendered obsolete with the advent of digital photography. Having access to a photographer’s contact reveals the artist's thoughts and working processes. The contact sheet is a twentieth-century phenomenon.