Louis le prince biography

Credited as the ‘Father of Cinematography’, Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince (1841-1890, declared dead 1897) was a French artist and inventor of the motion picture. However, the notoriety of his brilliant invention is on a par with the circumstances of his mysterious life: just a month before he was due to unveil his creation with world, he disappeared forever.

Theories from murder to suicide were proposed as an explanation, all of which failed to unearth any new information.

Le Prince’s death had a further negative impact: though he was the first to make a working model which captured motion outside his home in Leeds, he was never properly credited with the invention of the motion picture.

Instead, Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers dominated headlines for decades for inventing the equipment which made the moving image possible.

So who was Louis Le Prince? Why did he disappear, and how was he eventually credited as the ‘Father of Cinematography’?