OTTOMAR ANSCHUTZ. Horses at Play, c. 1890. 7.4x9.8" platinum or related metal print. Printed c. 1890. Printed in negative: Tr181/84. Stamped in blue ink on print verso: Ottomar Anschutz, Lissa (Posen) / Selbstverlag - Gesetzlich geschutzt; inscribed in pencil: anc. coll. Detaille.

Ottomar Anschutz (16 May 1846, in Lissa - 30 May 1907, in Berlin) was a German inventor, photographer, and chronophotographer. He studied photography between 1864 and 1868 under the well-known photographers Ferdinand Beyrich (Berlin), Franz Hanfstaengl (Munich), and Ludwig Angerer (Vienna). He received recognition for his photograph of John of Saxony on horseback in 1867. He then took over his father's company in Lissa, mainly working as a portrait photographer and as a decorative painter.

Anschutz made his first instantaneous photographs in 1881. He developed his portable camera that allowed shutter speeds as short as 1/1000 of a second in 1882. He made a name for himself with sharp photographs of imperial military demonstrations in Breslau in 1882 and gained more fame with pictures of flying storks in 1884. He organized exhibitions of his work at the Berlin Kriegsakadmie and the Düsseldorf Kunsthalle. In 1885, Anschutz started working on chronophotography, leading to very successful exhibitions of motion pictures with his Electrotachyscope from 1887 onward. Anschutz made pictures of the firing of cannonballs at 76 millionths of a second with a shutter that he patented on 11 November 1888 as the Brennebenen-Verschluss, marketed in cameras by C.P. Goerz & Co for almost 30 years. Anschutz designed at least three different camera models for the company in collaboration with Carl Paul Goerz.

Anschutz's many international motion picture exhibitions between 1887 and 1894 probably inspired many other pioneers in the history of film technology. Although there's no discrete evidence, Georges Demeny most likely saw Anschutz's "Sprechende Portrats" before developing his Phonoscope in 1891. Edison or his employees may have seen the Electrotachyscope (in New York possibly as early as 1887) and their peep-box Kinetoscope machines were probably influenced by the Siemens & Halske type of Electrotachyscope.

Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottomar_Ansch%C3%BCtz

Very good. Minor wear along lower left edge and upper edge of print. Minor edge wear.