Fencer, Motion Study, Georges Demeny, 1906

Fencer, Motion Study, Georges Demeny, 1906

The movements of a fencer, by Georges Demeny (French, 1850-1917). Photographed in 1906. Gelatin silver print. Demeny was the principal assistant to Etienne-Jules Marey (1831-1904), one of the nineteenth century's premier scientific investigators of the phenomenon of movement. In 1882, Demeny was instrumental in setting up Marey's "station physiologique" in the Bois de Boulogne--the studio where they carried out pioneering motion studies. Using a process that could make multiple exposures on a single photographic plate in rapid succession, Marey and Demeny could capture the visible traces of an entire motion in regular intervals and study that action at a level of detail not attainable by earlier photographic technologies. This picture was made in 1906, after Marey's death, while Demeny was professor of physiology at the National school of gymnastics and fencing at Joinville, which he established.

GEORGES DEMENY

Album / Science Source / Metropolitan Museum of Art

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3813 x 2513 px | 27.4 MB

32.3 x 21.3 cm | 12.7 x 8.4 in (300 dpi)