Where This Came From
Whilst working on Scenes from an Urban Gothic, James became increasingly fascinated by methods of studying and documenting movement through the camera lens. He found his interest ranged from the development of chronophotography in early 19th century, right through to digital film-making in the 21st. The images found in Revealing the Grotesque are greatly influenced by two pioneers of cinematography:
Eadweard Muybridge (1830 - 1903)
Muybridge is widely recognised for his pioneering work in the photographic studies of motion. Most notably, the pictures he captured of a horse in motion, which could then be viewed using a zoopraxiscope (a lantern he developed which projected the images in rapid succession), are identified as an important predecessor of the modern cinema, and is one of the earliest examples of a motion picture.
The methods he adopted to magically reconstruct motion serve as a fascinating, beautiful and intriguing method of analysing movement (and performance) which can now be viewed in the form of images, videos and gifs.
Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904)
Mary is also widely recognised as an influential pioneer of the history of cinema and photography, his images making significant strides in the fields of both medicine and cinematography.
Whereas Muybridge intended to study motion through reconstructing movement, Marey's ambition was to deconstruct movement, his techniques being developed with a much more scientific intention.
Marey would capture images using a chronophotographic gun. The gun would capture twelve consecutive frames a second and develop them all on to one single picture.
The effect Marey's images create is one I'm intrigued to explore and develop further through the archive.