Technologist magician Marco Tempest is back with another effort fusing traditional techniques and new gizmos. And I like how Marco celebrates Easter: not by painting eggs, but by filming them in motion on high-speed cameras.
This time, he calls our attention to George Karger, a pioneer in high-speed photography and amateur magic – a pre-digital forerunner to Mr. Tempest’s own practice.
A tribute to George Karger, a professional photographer (regularly contributed to Life magazine) he was the photographic illustrator for many magic books including the Stars of Magic series. But more importantly, he was the first magician ever to experiment with high-speed photography. Here’s to you, Mr. Karger, and to exploring the fourth dimension. (George Karger Died September 27, 1973)
This is the 1940 original: life.com/image/50336838
Music: Aleksi Virta “cosmos bossa” (archive.org)
Toys: AOS high speed camera @ 710fps, Nikon 50mm f/1.4, SIGMA 20mm f/1.8
copy me – remix me, music rights reserved. © 2011 newmagic communications, inc.
The clip itself is Creative Commons-licensed, so if you want to work this into your next VJ set, you can.
But here’s where things get exciting: Marco is working with Swiss maker AOS Technologies to develop a low-cost high-speed camera that could spread the use of this kind of photography. Marco has already been doing some beautiful work with the prototype model, seen below; we also have a gallery of the camera itself. Rest assured, we’ll be following development here.
More video:
Vimeo Album
Next step: thinking of more things to shoot, which could in turn be offered up as more CC clips. Open to suggestions, let us know ideas in comments — and stay tuned for more on working with this camera.