Etienne-Jules Marey

Etienne-Jules Marey

Etienne-Jules Marey was a French scientist and a chronophotogropher, born in Beaune, France in 1830. Marey enrolled in the faculty of medicine to study surgery and physiology in 1849. After studying the circulation of the blood, Marey published Le Mouvement dans les fonctions de la vie in 1868. From 1863, Marey perfected the first elements of his 'methode graphique', which studied movement using recording instruments and graphs. Using polygraphs, sphygmographs, dromographs and other myographs, he succeeded in analyzing diagrammatically the walk of man the results – was published under the name La Machine Animale in 1873. He later perfected the 'photographic gun', which gave him the ability of taking twelve still images in one second. In 1882 Marey quickly abandoned his gun and invented a chronophotographic fixed plate camera, equipped with a timed shutter. Using this, he was able to combine several successive images of a single movement.

Chronophotographic Gun

Chronophotographic Camera

In 1888, Marey invented a method of producing a series of successive images of a moving body on the same negative in order to be able to study its exact position in space at determined moments, which he called ‘chronophotographie’. Marey was able to improve his earlier invention by replacing the glass plate with a long strip of paper. The success of the invention caught the attention of the Academie des Sciences. He continued to improve his invention; two years later the sensitized paper strip was replaced by transparent film. Marey’s invention had a drastic impact on the world of cinematography as all succeeding cameras were based on the principles first applied by Marey. By the late 1890 and early 1900, Marey made a considerable number of motion analysis filmstrips of high technical and aesthetic quality including the very beautiful self-portraits of Marey and Demenÿ, the recording of the movement of a hand, and the famous falling cat. Finally in 1894 Marey published an important work, titled Le Mouvement, which covered all his researches, this had a considerable influence on all pioneers of the cinema that soon followed. The founding father of cinematographic technique “Etienne-Jules Marey,” died in 1904 leaving his research and legacy behind.

Pelican flying- Marey