In the Victorian era, when photography was first emerging as a widespread technology, one of the first things that photographers explored was the movement of human bodies. One technique used to capture frames in motion was a technique known as chronophotography, which took an individual photographic print and arranged them like an animation on one sheet, giving the impression or notion of movement, as in a zoetrope.
These images were ground-breaking for the time and not only showed off the possibilities that existed with photography but produced images that would amaze audiences and viewers. The technique can even be seen as a forerunner for later motion pictures.
Italian photographer and artist Manuel Cafini, was so impressed when he seen the 19th-century photographic artworks that he decided to update them for the modern age. He calls his technique ChronoPhotography+.
He says:
"The evolution (the '+' in the title of the project) from this antique technique is the figure of the athlete or dancer, well-defined and clear at the end of the timing sequence. No one had given importance to this until now."
Cafini uses a Nikon digital camera with a flash in multimode to create his images, made up of various dancers, athletes, and other models. Amazingly, Cafini does not edit the pictures in any way after they are taken.
The images certainly play a strong homage to the Victorian works and adds to them astonishing colour and vitality. Cafini's work has been immensely popular both off and online, and he himself has been awarded as a result of his photographic career the Photographic Society of America Gold Medal, the Trierenberg Super Cirquit Gold Medal, and the Prix de la Photographie Bronze Medal.
You can view more of Cafini's work here on his Instagram.
A post shared by Manuel Cafini Photographer (@manuel_cafini)
A post shared by Manuel Cafini Photographer (@manuel_cafini)
A post shared by Manuel Cafini Photographer (@manuel_cafini)
A post shared by Manuel Cafini Photographer (@manuel_cafini)
A post shared by Manuel Cafini Photographer (@manuel_cafini)
A post shared by Manuel Cafini Photographer (@manuel_cafini)
[Based on reporting by: Vice]
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