1886 Étienne-Jules Marey – Shaking a Flexible Rod

The First Chronophotographic Capture of Oscillatory Motion – Rendering Time Visible

In 1886, Étienne-Jules Marey produced one of the earliest chronophotographic visualisations of wave motion using a flexible rod. As he shook the rod with rhythmic precision, a camera captured its movement in a single exposure, creating a sinuous, ribbon-like trail that rendered invisible oscillations visible for the first time. This experiment formed part of Marey’s pioneering research into movement at the Collège de France and the Station Physiologique in Paris.

To visualise the full wave pattern, Marey employed a custom horizontal plate format designed specifically to extend the visible span of time. A fixed camera, dark backdrop, and minimal visual interference ensured that the motion itself became the subject.

Unlike earlier photographs that froze time, Marey’s method layered time within a single frame. By combining photography with mechanical precision, he developed a visual language for studying motion—one that would influence physiology, aerodynamics, and eventually film. This image marks a turning point where photography became a scientific tool, capable of measuring not only form, but force, frequency, and flow.

Credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (originally digitised from Zeno.org)
Author: Étienne-Jules Marey (1830–1904)
Title: Étienne-Jules Marey shaking a flexible rod
Date: 1886
Archive: Zeno.org
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Physical Original: Photographic plate or print from chronophotographic series; dimensions not specified

Available information: This image, part of Marey’s pioneering chronophotographic studies, captures the motion of a flexible rod as it vibrates in the scientist’s hand. Created in 1886, the photograph belongs to a series of experimental visualisations that transformed invisible movement into visible form. Marey's innovations—including the chronophotographic gun and multiple-exposure techniques—laid the foundation for motion analysis in biomechanics, aviation, and cinema. This image represents a key turning point where photography became a scientific instrument for understanding time and motion.

Embodied Observation: The Scientist in the Frame

By using his own body as the experimental constant, Étienne-Jules Marey brought a new kind of precision to the study of motion. His self-involvement wasn’t performative—it was methodological. This practice reflects what can now be called embodied observation: the deliberate use of the researcher’s own presence to generate reliable and repeatable data. Marey’s experiments aligned the seeing, doing, and recording of movement into one continuous act. His body functioned as a metronome of scientific inquiry, collapsing the distance between subject and observer.

This merging of body and method resonates in later works such as Man Ray’s Space Writing – Self-Portrait (1935), where gesture, exposure, and identity are recorded in a single act of motion. In both, time becomes visible through the body's trace—an image not just of the self, but a reflection of motion and time itself.