Background
Gaspard-Felix Tournachon (Nadar) was born on April 5, 1820, in Paris, France. His pseudonym, Nadar, was derived from his nickname, "tourne à dard" (bitter sting), earned for his caricatures.
caricaturist journalist novelist Photographer balloonist
Gaspard-Felix Tournachon (Nadar) was born on April 5, 1820, in Paris, France. His pseudonym, Nadar, was derived from his nickname, "tourne à dard" (bitter sting), earned for his caricatures.
Nadar studied medicine in Lyons, France.
In 1842 Nadar began selling caricatures to humor magazines. He became interested in photography about 1849 and opened a Pan's portrait studio in 1853 with his brother. Their studio became a meeting place for the great artists and intelligentsia of the day and, in 1874, it held the first Impressionist exhibit.
Nadar received a patent on October 29, 1858, for the taking of aerial photographs (from a balloon) for map-making and surveying. Nadar operated a balloon passenger and postal service between Paris and Tours during the Franco-Prussian War (1870). Founder of the magazines La Revue Comique (1849) and Paris Photographe (1891, lasting only until 1893), he contributed articles and caricatures to myriad publications of the day, as well as writing novels, essays, and satires.
Nadar took the first aerial photograph ever made from an enormous balloon he built around 1858. It was three times larger than any other made and carried a two-story gondola that could carry forty-nine men. Within the balloon itself, he built a darkroom where he coated his wet plates. Nadar made several series of photographs of the catacombs and sewers beneath Pans in 1861-1862, with the use of carbon arc lights. Nadar was one of the first photographers to use electric lights, though he later switched to magnesium light. In 1886 Nadar introduced the photo-interview via a series of portraits taken by his son during an interview between Nadar and scientist Michel-Eugène Chevruel on the occasion of his hundredth birthday.
Quotes from others about the person
Andre Jammes calls his work "utterly honest and most expressive. Making albumen prints in cartes de visite and large format, Nadar, at the hub of society's world of arts and letters, photographed scores of famous people - Franz Liszt, George Sand, Sara Bernhardt, Balzac, Delacroix, Rossini, etc."