4 good links

  1. Louis Jean Lumiére

    Profile from the cool Who's Who of Victorian Cinema

  2. Institut Lumiere

    Includes info on the family history and the Lumiere museum

  3. Louis and Auguste Lumiére

    Brief profile, photos of their machine and more on early cinema

  4. The Oldest Movies

    Easily approachable summary of early cinema and Lumiére

Louis Lumiére Biography

Louis Lumiére was the son of a Antoine Lumiére, a successful pioneer in photography. When Louis was a teenager he developed a photographic process that made the family business even more successful, and then he and his brother Auguste (b. 1862) turned their attention to the new invention of moving pictures. Together they invented a camera/projector called the Cinematograph, and for the first time audiences were able to see large projections of motion pictures (prior to that people watched the new medium through peepshows like those developed by Thomas Edison). The Lumiére brothers' produced thousands of short films, usually documents of everyday life, and were instrumental in the development of the cinema as a popular art form.

Extra credit:

At the Paris International Exhibition of 1900, the brothers unveiled a 360 degree panoramic projector, using 70mm film.

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