Albert Londe
Last time, we saw the work of French photographer Etienne-Jules Marey, who developed a camera to illustrate motion that took multiple images on one piece of film.
Today we look at his fellow Frenchman, Albert Londe (1858-1917), who developed a different type of camera to do stop-motion photography. This all happened in the era before the movie camera was invented.
Above, Londe (standing) is photographing a nude model while Marey (sitting) looks on, around 1883.
Like Muybridge, Londe took separate photos on separate pieces of film, but unlike Muybridge, who used multiple cameras, Londe combined first 9, then 12 cameras into one device, seen above. The cameras were triggered by a metronome to release the shutters in quick succession.
Londe was hired by neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot at the Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, originally a hospice for insane, epileptic and "hysterical" women. Londe used his equipment to photograph patients, including ones having epileptic seizures.
However, Londe also photographed male models and athletes. His photos illustrated Dr. Paul Richer's 1895 book Physiologie Artistique de l'Homme en Mouvement (Artistic Physiology of Man in Motion). Plate I, above, illustrates movement of the forearm by a naked model.
You can click on all of these photos for a larger view.
Plate II: more movements of the forearm.
Plate III: movements of the arm.
Plate IV: more movements of the arm.
Plate V: walking, lateral view.
Plate VI: Walking, front view.
I made Plate VI into this gif.
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Londe took many more photos of nude models. Above is a sequence called Vus Chronophotographique de Charcot Fils (Time Photography Views of Charcot's Son). The model is Jean-Baptiste Charcot, the son of Londe's boss at the hospital, Jean-Martin Charcot.
I made the sequence into this gif, showing Jean-Baptiste kicking a football (soccer ball). So, you see, Muybridge wasn't the only one taking these kinds of photos.
Jean-Baptiste Charcot, the naked model above, became a scientist and polar explorer.
Next time: the stop-motion photography of artist and photographer Thomas Eakins.
5 comments:
The Plate VI man walking (GIF) certainly shows a well-built man, perhaps a soldier? These photos are quite interesting. The fact that the photographer wanted the young men totally nude....with genitals on full display....makes these photos even more valuable. Thanks for the excellent research on this topic of nude motion studies.
It's always good to hear about early-day photographers who photographed naked men.
That camera is ingenious!
Fascinating! Thanks!
what a difference with the Baltic men!
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