Louis Le Prince shot the first film on a single lens camera in 1888. But before his contribution was recognised, the French inventor mysteriously disappeared and has been largely forgotten. Thomas Edison wasn’t forgotten though. After revealing his Kinetoscope in 1893, crowds lined up to watch short films through a peephole. Housed in a large cabinet, the Kinetoscope contained 50-foot loops of 35mm film that showed everything from barber shops to bodybuilding. In 1895, moving images broke free with the Lumiere Brothers’ Cinematographe, a device that could record, develop and project film onto a screen for public viewing. It even inspired the name of the new art form – cinema.
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Collection
In ACMI's collection
On display until
16 February 2031
ACMI: Gallery 1
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
181407
Curatorial sections
The Story of the Moving Image → Moving Pictures → MI-04. Materiality → MI-04-AV01B
The Story of the Moving Image → Moving Pictures → MI-04. Materiality → MI-04-C01
Object Types
Moving image file/Digital