YOU OUGHTA BE IN PICTURES



Movies are a part of human life, from a train going through a tunnel to ET making Elliott's bike fly. But not one indelible screen image could have occurred without Louis le Prince. But, would cinema be different if Louis le prince had not disappeared? The man who invented the first camera capable of motion capture boarded a train and never got off. No trace of Louis le Prince was ever found.


Louis le Prince was born in Metz in 1841. His father was friends with Louis Daguerre, inventor of photography.  Le Prince created a 16 lens camera that could capture motion - the first of its kind. In 1887 he built a single lens camera and took footage of a garden scene which became one of the earliest motion pictures. The Lumiere Brothers had begun working with moving pictures, and Thomas Edison was doing the same in America.


In September of 1890 le Prince traveled to the U.S. to obtain a patent for his technology. He decided to visit his brother in France first. He boarded a train to Paris and was never seen again. Theories abounded : le Prince was suicidal and ended his life (why would he decide to patent his work in the U.S. if he wanted to end his life?) He was murdered, or Edison was responsible for le Prince's death because his paperwork would disprove Edison's claim he had been the sole creator of the motion picture camera. Edison and the Lumiere Brothers are known for innovating and popularizing motion pictures, and le Prince has been forgotten. Perhaps if he had used his camera and filmed his disappearance, we would know what happened.

SOURCES :

Casey, Kieron. The Mystery of Louis Le Prince, the Father of Cinematography. Science + Media Museum, 29 August 2013.

Louis Le Prince. Wikipedia.

FURTHER MEDIA ~

PODCASTS : 

Flowers, Ashley, host. "DISAPPEARED : Louis Le Prince." Supernatural. Parcast, 1 July 2020. 


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