The Animated Stereoscopic Portrait

Abstract

This is a short report, first published in French in 1908, on Émile Reynaud’s ill-fated Stéréo-Cinéma, the last incarnation of his renowned Praxinoscope (first marketed in 1878). The Stéréo-Cinéma was intended to attract interest within the trend of animated portrait photography. This text contributes to our understanding of the limits of designating any clear-cut distinction between proto-cinematography and cinematography.

KEYWORDS:

• G. Maréchal
• Émile Reynaud
• Praxinoscope
• Stéréo-Cinéma
• optical illusions
• proto-cinematography/early cinema culture
• animation
• animated photography
• stereoscopic cinema

Notes

1. See Laurent Mannoni, The Great Art of Light and Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000), 368, 385 and 535.

2. See Stephen Herbert, “Animated Portrait Photography,” History of Photography 13, no.1 (1989): 65–78.

3. Mannoni, Great Art, 241.

4. Deac Rossell, Living Pictures: The Origins of the Movies (Albany: SUNY Press, 1998), 44–5.

5. Mannoni, Great Art, 353–7 and 441–50.

6. Herbert, “Animated Portrait Photography.”

7. It is worth noting that Reynaud developed his own stereoscopic cinematographic camera that would be used only by himself and his employees in preparing the animated portraits.