Figure: Eadweard Muybridge's (1830--1904) stills of the horse in motion

Caption: A sequence of stills showing race horse galloping. Photographs taken by Eadweard Muybridge (1830--1904), The sequence illustrates animal locomotion.

Further Explication:

1. The stills combined may be the first sports film.

   They illustrate matter and motion.

2. Before early motion pictures, it was NOT clear when a galloping horse has all its feet off the ground at once. It's when they are close together, NOT when they are outstretched (see American Museum of Natural History: Horse: Gaits). The unrealistic outstretched flying horse is seen in many old paintings (e.g., Horse racing near Apsley House, London, c.1860, Frances Elizabeth Wynne (1835--1907)).

3. Eadweard Muybridge is probably the best candidate for the inventor of the motion picture, but NOT of film in an ultra literal sense since his motion pictures were NOT made with photographic film. His movies were constructed from high-cadence snapshots, but films they still are.

4. In fact, Muybridge invented all film genres: the sports film, the nature documentary, the ... When you can make films, you can make films about anything.