The photograph titled “Woman pouring a bucket of water over another woman” is an artwork created by Eadweard Muybridge, produced in the years 1884-85. The photo actually consists of a series of images capturing the motion of one woman pouring water from a bucket onto another woman sitting below her.
In this series of black and white images, each frame captures a different stage of the action. It is an early example of Muybridge’s work exploring motion and the sequence of human activities, a precursor to motion pictures. You can see the progression of the woman bending down to pick up a bucket, lifting it, and then tipping it to pour the water over the seated woman who reacts to the cascade of water. The background appears to be uniformly patterned, likely to help illustrate the motion clearly. This set of photographs is part of Muybridge’s larger study of human and animal movement that laid foundational work for the development of cinematography.
