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Picturing Time

The Work of Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904)

Etienne-Jules Marey was an inventor whose methods of recording movement revolutionized our way of visualizing time and motion. Best remembered for his chronophotography, Marey constructed a single-camera system that led the way to cinematography. Picturing Time, the first complete survey of Marey’s work, investigates the far reaching effects of Marey’s inventions on stream-of-consciousness literature, psychoanalysis, Bergsonian philosophy, and the art of cubists and futurists.

Braun offers a fascinating look at how Marey’s chronophotography was used to express the profound transformation in understanding and experiencing time that occurred in the late nineteenth century. Featuring 335 illustrations, Picturing Time includes many unpublished examples of Marey’s chronophotographs and cinematic work. It also contains a complete bibliography of his writings and the first catalog of his films, photographic prints, and recently discovered negatives.

472 pages | 270 halftones, 65 line drawings | 8-1/4 x 9-1/2 | © 1992

Art: Art--General Studies, Photography

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Pt. 1: Marey and His Work
1: Brains in His Fingertips
2: The Writing of Life: The Graphic Method
3: Reinventing the Camera: The Photographic Method
4: Animating Images: The Cinematographic Method
5: The Last Work
Pt. 2: Marey’s Legacy
6: Marey, Muybridge, and Motion Pictures
7: Marey, Modern Art, and Modernism
8: Marey and the Organization of Work
Conclusion: Inventing the Inventor
Catalog 1: Photographic Negatives and Prints
Catalog 2: Original Chronophotographic and Photographic Experiments
Catalog 3: Films
Notes
Bibliography of Works by Marey
Index

Awards

Kraszna-Krausz Foundation: Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards
Shortlist

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