Man Walking Around a Corner
About Man Walking Around a Corner
Sixteen frames from Louis Le Prince's 16-lens camera show a man walking around a corner. The English Wikipedia places that corner at Rue Bochart-de-Saron and Avenue Trudaine, in Paris's 9th arrondissement. Pictures went to his wife in a letter dated August 18, 1887. David Wilkinson's 2015 documentary The First Film treats the piece as separate photographs, one from each lens, not as a moving-image film. The frames last under two seconds.
Cast & crew
More about Man Walking Around a Corner
Le Prince shot it in August 1887 on the LPCC Type-16 camera. Wikidata times it at 2 seconds and lists the country as the United Kingdom. The catalog says he was in Leeds when he sent the pictures to his wife in New York. Wikipedia says the pictures were made in Paris. Wikipedia adds that he later built a one-lens camera and, on October 14, 1888, made what that page calls the world's first moving image. The catalog calls the strip a gelatine film at 32 images a second.
Themes
Background
This 1887 strip sits before the October 14, 1888 single-lens picture Wikipedia treats as Le Prince's first moving image.
Making
Each of the 16 lenses supplied one photograph. The sequence is the lenses fired in turn, not a single-lens movie.
Look
Le Prince used the 16-lens LPCC Type-16. The catalog gives the rate as 32 images a second.
Technique
A 16-lens sequence of one pedestrian, lasting under two seconds.
Preservation
The frames survive as a short animated sequence. The Commons copy is a GIF.
Notes
- The Commons file is a GIF, not a film reel.
- The First Film (2015) is the documentary that argues these 16 frames are stills.
- Wikidata's location field says Paris, matching the street corner on the English Wikipedia.
Scenes
- A man walks around the Paris corner across the 16 frames.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Man Walking Around A Corner.gif)
