Eadweard Muybridge invented a device that led to both cinema and burst photography – all to settle a question about horses – and the way it worked was utter genius

A vintage series of 12 black-and-white sequential photographs titled "The Horse in Motion" by Eadweard Muybridge, capturing the step-by-step movement of a jockey riding a galloping horse across a grid-marked backdrop.

Every photographer has, at some point, wished that their gear could do something it simply can't. You suddenly crave a shutter speed fast enough to freeze a hummingbird's wing, or a trigger quick enough to catch a water droplet at the exact moment of impact.

It's nice to fantasize for a few seconds, then most of us just shrug and get on with what we're doing. Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) didn't.