The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another

Chapter 4 focuses on advances in photography. Ramirez opens with a discussion of Eadweard Muybridge, an English photographer famous for his studies of motion. Muybridge worked for Leland Stanford, a two-time governor of California and president of the Central Pacific Railroad. Stanford asked Muybridge to photograph his fastest horse to prove his theory that when a horse ran, it had moments in which all four hooves were off the ground. Muybridge set out to capture this movement, which led to advances in photography—most importantly, the invention of cameras with shutters. Muybridge eventually became famous for his photographic studies of motion. Ramirez then segues into a discussion of Reverend Hannibal Goodwin, a little-known 19th-century inventor. Goodwin created a process for making thin, flexible photographic film, which replaced earlier forms of photography such as the daguerreotype. Ramirez describes Goodwin’s lengthy patent fight with George Eastman of Eastman Kodak, which left Goodwin destitute and largely forgotten despite his contributions to photography.

Ramirez devotes part of Chapter 4 to the shortcomings of early color film at representing Black people. Photographs disseminate information. From the time of photography’s invention in the mid-19th century, white people used it to portray Black people in damaging, stereotypical ways.