Etienne Jules Marey

Etienne Jules Marey was originally a French scientist and chronophotographer. Etienne is believed to be one of the pioneers of photography and cinema.Just like the Bragaglia Brothers, Etienne found a way to capture various movements of an object through one image.

In 1882 he created a way to record several stages of movement on one photo by using a chronophotographic gun. It would take 12 frames a second of the moving image and record them on the same photographic paper. He studied all animals including birds, dogs, fish and insects. In 1890 he created a book called the ‘Flight of Birds’ that showcased his work.

His method was different to the Bragaglias as Etienne’s gun was a lot different toe exposure. When the trigger was pulled the plate rotated once in a second, while the shutter opened the same number of times each second. Etienne then pointed the 'gun' at the bird, and continued to press the trigger while following the bird with the gun. The result was a plate with 12 different images set around the edge, which showed the different parts of a bird's flight. Again a very complex but ahead of its time method for capturing moving images. I prefer the style of the Bragaglias method as i like the different opacity levels of each level, where as this method just seem abit too cluttered for my liking.