Louis Lumière Biography

Louis Lumière and his brother Auguste were French inventors who made the world’s first true motion picture. They patented the cinematograph—a motion picture film camera and a film projector—which they used to make movies. Born as the son of a photographer, he became fascinated with the art of photography and the science behind it early on in life. His interest was shared by his brother Auguste and the two young men began working together in their father’s photographic firm. Louis made some improvements to the still-photograph process, and together with his father and brother developed a new, cutting edge, "dry" photographic plate, dubbed the "blue label" plate. The brothers started experimenting with creating moving images after their father’s retirement and found considerable success with their creative inventions. Inspired by Edison’s peephole Kinetoscope, the brothers started working on a similar machine and acquired the technology for the cinematograph from Léon Guillaume Bouly and patented the equipment in their own names. They went on to record motion pictures and held their first private screening of projected motion pictures in 1895. The popularity of their invention motivated them to embark on a world tour and they screened movies in cities like Bombay, London, Montreal, New York and Buenos Aires across the globe.