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But do not all these miracles [the steam engine, the electric light, the telephone, the phonograph, the radio, bacteriology, anesthesiology, psychophysiology] pale when compared to the most astonishing and disturbing one of all, that one which seems finally to endow man himself with the divine power of creation: the power to give physical form to the insubstantial image that vanishes as soon as it is perceived, leaving no shadow in the mirror, no ripple on the surface of the water? (1900)
Nadar
Nadar. Gaspard-Félix Tournachon. 1820 to 1910. Ninety years. The bastard did everything.
Photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, balloonist. Pick a lane? Fuck that. He did it all.
Portraits. That’s what he’s known for. Shot everyone: Baudelaire, George Sand, Sarah Bernhardt, Dumas, Berlioz. All the artists and writers and actors of 19th century Paris came to his studio. He didn’t just take their picture. He captured something. Made them look human and iconic at the same time.
First photographer to shoot from a hot air balloon. Aerial photography before anyone knew what that was. Built his own balloon… Le Géant, The Giant. Thing was massive. Took it up, looked down, saw Paris from above, took pictures.
First to photograph the Paris catacombs and sewers using artificial light. Down in the tunnels with the bones and the rats and the shit, dragging equipment, making it work. Nobody else was doing that.
1874: his studio at 35 Boulevard des Capucines hosts the first Impressionist exhibition. Monet, Renoir, Degas, all of them. They couldn’t get a gallery, so Nadar gave them space. Changed art history in his fucking photography studio.
Jules Verne based a character on him. That’s how larger-than-life this guy was.
Lived to 89. Died in 1910, having seen it all, done it all, photographed it all.
He probably knew half the people he’s buried with. Photographed most of them.
Ninety years. Most people don’t do in ninety years what he did in ten.
Shot on infrared film in Père Lachaise Cemetery. Signed Limited Edition 17” x11” print of 10; stamped on verso. Professional black & white printing on Hahnemühle fibre-based Matt paper.