Alfred Camille Abadie (December 9, 1878 – January 1, 1950) was an American

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers As in other ...

and pioneer

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

who worked for

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

. He specialized in

actuality film The actuality film is a non-fiction film genre that, like the documentary film, uses footage of real events, places, and things. Unlike the documentaries, actuality films are not structured into a larger argument, picture of the phenomenon or coh ...

s, a predecessor to the standard form of documentary. In 2019, Abadie's ''Emigrants Landing at Ellis Island'' was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures added to the

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and recommended for preservation. The two minute film was the first to record a ferryboat docking at Ellis Island with dozens of passengers disembarking.

Biography

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

native, Abadie began as camera assistant to

James H. White James Henry White (March 1872 – 1944) was a Canadian film pioneer, who worked as a film director, director, film producer, producer, and cinematographer. He also appeared as an actor in several movie, films. He was employed by the Edison Manufac ...

at the

Edison Studio Edison Studio is a collective of composers and an electroacoustic music ensemble. It was founded in Rome in 1993 by the composers Mauro Cardi, Luigi Ceccarelli, Fabio Cifariello Ciardi e Alessandro Cipriani. Since more than 20 years Edison St ...

around 1898. In 1903, Edison sent Abadie to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

and

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

to make actuality films. This is thought to possibly have been an attempt to keep up with similar subjects popularized by the

Lumières The Lumières (literally in English: ''The Lights'') was a cultural, philosophical, literary and intellectual movement beginning in the second half of the 17th century, originating in western Europe and spreading throughout the rest of Europe. It ...

. Abadie returned to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and kept making similar films for Edison through at least 1904. After leaving Edison, Abadie continued to work as a freelance

and

. He made educational and industrial films, including ''Birth'' (1917), which is the first film of the

birth Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...

of a baby.

Selected filmography

As a cinematographer

* ''Railroad Smashup'' (1904) * ''Annual Baby Parade, 1904, Asbury Park, N.J.'' (1904) * ''Emigrants Landing at Ellis Island'' (1903) * '' Move On'' (1903) * ''Market Scene in Cairo, Egypt'' (1903)

As a director

* ''Annual Baby Parade, 1904, Asbury Park, N.J.'' (1904) * '' Move On'' (1903)

As a writer

* ''Birth'' (1917)

As a producer

* ''Turning the Tables'' (1903)

As an actor

* '' The Great Train Robbery'' (1903) * ''

What Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City ''What Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City'' is a 1901 American short film. Plot The 77 second film depicts a woman, escorted by a man, walking over a grate. The hot air lifts her skirt, she laughs and they walk on. Comparisons ...

'' (1901)

References

External links

*''Emigrants Landing at Ellis Island'' can be seen at the Library of Congress web sit
''Emigrants Landing at Ellis Island''
a film by Abadie via the

World Digital Library The World Digital Library (WDL) is an international digital library operated by UNESCO and the United States Library of Congress. The WDL has stated that its mission is to promote international and intercultural understanding, expand the volume ...

1878 births 1950 deaths Photographers from New York City American filmmakers Cinema pioneers {{US-photographer-stub