Nadar

Nadar (self-portrait).

Félix Nadar was the pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (1 April 1820, Paris – 23 March 1910), a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist and balloonist. Some photographs by Nadar are marked "P. Nadar" for "Photographie Nadar" (see image below).

Life

"Nadar élevant la Photographie à la hauteur de l'Art" (Nadar elevating Photography to Art). Lithograph by Honoré Daumier, appearing in Le Boulevard, May 25, 1863.

One of a nine-picture series of photographs of a hermaphrodite, 1860

1863: Disaster with "Le Géant" at Neustadt am Rübenberge at Hanover. Illustration in a newspaper

Nadar was born in April 1820 in Paris (though some sources state Lyon). He was a caricaturist for Le Charivari in 1848. In 1849 he created the Revue comique and the Petit journal pour rire. He took his first photographs in 1853 and in 1858 became the first person to take aerial photographs. He also pioneered the use of artificial lighting in photography, working in the catacombs of Paris.

Around 1863, Nadar built a huge (6000 m³) balloon named Le Géant ("The Giant"), thereby inspiring Jules Verne's Five Weeks in a Balloon. Although the "Géant" project was initially unsuccessful Nadar was still convinced that the future belonged to heavier-than-air machines. Later, "The Society for the Encouragement of Aerial Locomotion by Means of Heavier than Air Machines" was established, with Nadar as president and Verne as secretary. Nadar was also the inspiration for the character of Michael Ardan in Verne's From the Earth to the Moon.

Circa 1865: « Revolving » selfportrait by Nadar; 2010: Animation

On his visit to Brussels with the Géant, on 26 September 1864, Nadar erected mobile barriers to keep the crowd at a safe distance. Up to this day, crowd control barriers are known in Belgium as Nadar barriers.

In April 1874, he lent his photo studio to a group of painters, thus making the first exhibition of the Impressionists possible. He photographed Victor Hugo on his death-bed in 1885. He is credited with having published (in 1886) the first photo-interview (of famous chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul, then a centenarian), and also took erotic photographs.

From 1895 until his return to Paris in 1909, the Nadar photo studio was in Marseilles (France).

Nadar died in 1910, aged 89. He was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Gallery

See also

• Prix Nadar, French photojournalism prize given in Nadar's name
• Mononymous person
• Michel Ardan

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Félix Nadar

• Works by Félix Nadar at Project Gutenberg
• 1867 Caricature of Nadar by André Gill
• Article about Nadar by Bruce Sterling