Evening Recreations of the Coffee Pickers, San Isidro
Eadweard J. Muybridge
American, born England. 1830–1904
1875
An albumen silver print by Eadweard Muybridge that documents coffee pickers in San Isidro bathing and relaxing in a jungle stream, aiming to record everyday life while using photographic technique to shape its mood.
What strikes you is the contrast between the crisply detailed women—posed and attentive—and the water’s long‑exposure silkiness and dense tropical foliage, giving the scene a quiet, staged intimacy.
This photograph stands at the crossroads of 19th‑century documentary and pictorial practice, showing how early photographers combined ethnographic interest with technical control of time and motion—an approach that prefigures Muybridge’s later scientific studies of movement.
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
5 3/8 × 9 3/8" (13.6 × 23.8 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Transferred from The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York
Accession
182.1964.106
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
