Marey the Multi-talented Researcher
Étienne-Jules Marey was born in Beaune, France in 1830. He was a doctor, physiologist, biologist, biomechanist, and professor at the Collège de France, as well as being the first filmmaker in French cinema history. He was also a leading figure in 19th-century science who was behind a number of discoveries in the fields of medicine, human and animal locomotion, aviation, physical education, physiology, biomechanics, cinema, and more…
Seeing the Invisible and Pushing the Boundaries of Our Senses
During his lifetime, Marey doggedly pursued just one goal: to record all movement, whether it be humans, animals, fluids, moving objects, microscopic creatures… To do this, he first developed the "graphic method" that involved transcribing movement as marks on paper.
First Device
In 1859, Marey submitted a doctoral thesis in medicine and designed his first device. His "sphygmograph" invention, inspired by a German system, recorded a person's pulse, leading to new scientific theories about blood circulation. The "movement-exploring" machines he then built (including a cardiograph, a pneumograph, a myograph, and a polygraph) paved the way for major developments in the fields of medicine and physiology.
Men and Beasts
Marey progressed quickly in his studies of human walking, avian flight, and equine movement, making a wealth of important discoveries along the way. In the early 1860s, he applied his graphic method to insects, whose movements are especially complex and difficult to understand.
Aviation Pioneer
To study avian flight, Marey developed a whole range of devices that could record the slightest movement of birds, as well as their breathing and muscular effort. His research provided solid foundations for early aviation theoreticians; in 1879, an airplane designed by French engineer Victor Tatin was the first to leave the ground, if only by a few meters.
Muybridge and the Galloping Horse
In 1873, Marey established that galloping horses have all 4 hooves off the ground for a split second and that, at another moment, they also put all their weight onto one front leg. This observation inspired the American Leland Stanford and his English photographer Eadweard Muybridge to resume their previously abandoned attempts to take snapshots of moving horses.
The Photographic Gun and the Chronophotographic Camera
Muybridge's famous galloping horse photos taken in 1878 persuaded Marey to turn his hand to photography too. In 1882, he developed the photographic gun, which could take 12 shots per second. He then designed a much more powerful camera with a glass plate and took beautifully clear and precise shots of walking men and how they moved; their "outlines." The "chronophotographic" method was born.
Scientific and Artistic Shots
Marey's chronophotographs represented something of a revolution in scientific imaging and the history of esthetic forms. They were forerunners of modern art, abstraction, futurism, and 20th-century kinetic art. Artist Marcel Duchamp admitted to being largely inspired by Marey's chronophotographs when creating his work "Nude Descending a Staircase" (1912), which shook up the modern art scene.
From Marey to James Cameron
For some shots, Marey dressed his subject in a black suit with bright lines and dots on their joints. The camera only captured the bright trajectory of these moving points. The "geometric shots" he obtained enabled him to create some magnificent outline drawings. This method was the forerunner of modern motion and performance capture techniques as made famous by James Cameron's film, "Avatar."
Celluloid Film
In the summer of 1889, Marey shot his first films on celluloid, the new transparent film roll made in the United States by George Eastman for Kodak. Marey's camera had a "press frame" that periodically halted the film roll at the lens focus when the shutter was open. Today's cinematographic film cameras still use this principle.
The Physiological Station
In 1882, Marey was given a research laboratory called the "Physiological Station". It was located in the Bois de Boulogne and subsidized by the State and the City of Paris. The laboratory had a circular track for subjects being chronophotographed and a hangar with a black background that made the subjects stand out during shooting. The camera itself was installed in a small wooden hut. It could easily be moved forwards and backwards along rails to vary the frame and depth of field, as for a tracking shot.
A Menagerie Worthy of Noah's Ark
Here in Paris, and in another studio set up at his Naples villa, Marey shot around 800 films on celluloid from 1889, with help from his very capable assistant Georges Demenÿ. The 2 researchers put together a veritable film encyclopedia: a vast scientific and artistic project that used chronophotography to explore the "different types of locomotion in animals" including mammals, birds, fish, microscopic organisms, mollusks, insects, reptiles, and more.
Useful Work for Science and the Arts
Marey and Demenÿ's subsidy from the War Office was justified by their chronophotographic work on economy of force in movement and load distribution as soldiers march. There was a need to know how rope pullers, woodcutters, blacksmiths, house painters, and others moved so they could be helped in their work. These studies also interested artists. In 1893, Marey and Demenÿ published "Études de physiologie artistique" (Studies in Artistic Physiology), which was aimed at painters, engravers, and sculptors, as well as at scientists. Here, Marey played a key role in bringing physiology and art together.
"Movement"
In 1894, Marey published his masterbook, "Le Movement" (Movement), which summarized all his research. In the book, he announced that his assistant Georges Demenÿ had invented chronophotographic projection with his new "phonoscope," which was then marketed in 1895 by Léon Gaumont.
"Falling Cat"
Some of Marey's films caused a sensation in their day. One example was "Falling Cat" (1894), through which Marey was able to confirm the popular belief that cats always land on their feet. Indeed, cats can do this due to the inertia of their own mass.
Final research
In 1899, Marey built a wind tunnel for research into aerodynamics and took snapshots of smoke snaking around various geometric obstacles. This winding white smoke was positioned in front of a black background and observed hitting or wrapping itself around prisms, circles, corners, etc. In doing this, Marey was almost returning to his roots—in a deeper way—beautifully bringing over 50 years of research into graphics and his enigmatic black and white world to a close. The scientist died in 1904.
Secret Marey
In 1963, la Cinémathèque française organized the first exhibition of Marey's work. "Nothing is more secret, nothing is more lyrical, nothing is more explosive, nothing is more current than the silence of its blacks and the lightness of its whites," writes Henri Langlois, founder of la Cinémathèque française.
Legacy
Because of their beauty and mystery, Marey's images still captivate scientists and the wider public today. The many studies, drawings, graphics, photographs, and movies left to us by Marey are magnificent works of art and creations of equal scientific and esthetic value. His research also paved the way for Edison's "Kinetoscope" (1894), Lumière's "Cinematograph" (1895), the movie industry, and cinemas. And by 1895, the Lumière brothers were already paying tribute to Marey's pioneering work.
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