RON HENGGELER

May 5, 2006
An old redwood tree in San Francisco

The old redwood tree in San Francisco stands tall near Jones and
Washington Streets up on Nob Hill. The tree as a youngster appears in the
famous 1878 photographed panoramic view of San Francisco that was made by
Eadweard Muybridge from the top turret of the Mark Hopkins mansion. The tree
is a survivor of the Great Fire in 1906.

The Big 4 Restaurant has a print of the Muybridge panoramic view of San
Francisco in the alcove leading to the restrooms. This magnificent image of
San Francisco in 1878 is made up of thirteen frames put together and is
fourteen feet long.

Three months after Eadweard Muybridge shot the
panorama, Leland Stanford and Muybridge went down to Palo Alto to the Stanford ranch (where the University
stands today). He set up a series of cameras with primitive electrical trip
lines. Stanford was a breeder of fine race horses, and they ran Occident,
one of his favorite horses, through the line of cameras. What they found out
and proved with the rapidly caught images, was that a galloping horse does
indeed have moments when all four hooves are off the ground. What they also
realized for the first time, is that you get motion pictures in this
process.

It's not a stretch to say, that the germinating seed of cinema began to
first take sprout above ground and into the sunlight, in San Francisco, up
on Nob Hill, in 1878.

 

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The images are not in the public domain. They are the sole property of the artist and may not be reproduced on the Internet, sold, altered, enhanced, modified by artificial, digital or computer imaging or in any other form without the express written permission of the artist. Non-watermarked copies of photographs on this site can be purchased by contacting Ron.