In this goofy, staged fight scene made in a studio setting, an unknown photographer has cleverly manipulated time. Two men, one dressed as a train conductor, are shown engaging in a bout of fisticuffs, possibly over the conductor’s pocket-watch, which the would-be thief is holding in the first image.
Together the two photographs appear to document a brief moment in time. In truth, however, slow exposure times and bulky camera equipment suggest that several minutes, and possibly over an hour, would have been required to create these two fictional scenes. It is also possible that these two existing frames are the only survivors of a longer, multiphotograph narrative.
As a result, the viewer is presented with a partial narrative: static and staged but reminiscent of a "Keystone Cops"-style motion picture.
In fact, the photographs were likely made at about the same time that motion pictures were emerging in the world. They therefore serve as reminders of the days before film, in which the viewer's imagination had to fill in the gaps between pictures.