The Lumière brothers invent cinema... By Raphaël Bernard & Antoine DeLaForge

First films projected!

> Les frères Lumière

The Lumière brothers: Auguste (1862-1954) and Louis (1864-1948) were born in Besançon, France. They moved to Lyon in 1870, where both attended La Martiniere, the largest technical school in Lyon. Their father, Claude-Antoine Lumière (1840–1911), ran a photographic firm where both brothers worked for him: Louis as a physicist and Auguste as a manager.

In autumn 1894, Antoine Lumière asked his two sons to take an interest in animated images which Thomas Edison and some other splendid pioneers had already worked on. This paternal incentive is the starting point of an adventure which lead to the invention of the Cinématographe. It was not until their father retired in 1892 that the brothers began to create moving pictures.

Public shows, lasting about 20 minutes, began on December 28^th 1895 in the Indian Room, in the basement of the Grand Café in Paris. L'arrivée d'un train en gare de la Ciotat was one of the main attractions of the show. The locomotive rushing towards the spectators made the film a real success!

To promote the Cinématographe, films had to made. Louis Lumière sent his operators all over the world, thus creating the first documentary films.

The following year, at the World Fair in Paris, the Lumière films were shown on a giant screen.

Helped by his brother, Louis turned to other activities. In 1899, he developed the Photorama. In 1903, Louis created colour plate photography, put on the market in 1907.

He also studied “3-D” photography and presented, in 1920, at the Academy of Science, the photostéréosynthèse process. In 1935, thanks to the anaglyphs technique he achieved cinematographic relief.

The Lumière brothers were curious and inventive, and launched the adventure of moving pictures.