Man Bicycling
Etienne Jules Marey
1890s
Medium
Gelatin silver lantern slide (chronophotograph)
Dimensions
8.5 × 10 cm (3 3/8 × 3 15/16 in.)
Classification
photograph
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
212158
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Physiologist Étienne-Jules Marey’s lifelong fascination with bodily movement led him to develop what he called “chronophotography”—meaning “photography of time”—a process that may have influenced the locomotion studies of Eadweard Muybridge, which are generally better known. To create his chronophotographs, Marey modified an ordinary camera by placing a rotating metal disk with multiple slots cut at regular intervals behind the lens and leaving the lens open. As the subject moved in front of a d...