E. J. Marey (1830-1904), la cronofotografia i el seu reflex en la premsa catalana contemporània: 1882-1902

Abstract

The French physiologist, Etienne-Jules Marey, invented a process that he called chronophotography, which he applied to the study of the decomposition of movement, primarily that of human and animal locomotion, but also of fluids (such as water) and smoke. He used his photographic gun to capture changes in a moving form within a brief span of time. Marey is considered the precursor not only of one of the most transcendental inventions in moving image, the cinematograph device of the Lumière brothers, but also of aerodynamics (with his photographs of birds in flight), and the futurist movement in the arts. The author of the present paper has collected, and translated into Catalan for the first time, references to these events in the Catalan press of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in the weekly La Ilustración Artística of Barcelona, which published detailed reports of these breakthroughs between February and May of 1893.