Birth Of Photography
Nadar
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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 1855 opened a photographic studio at 25 Boulevard des Capucines and in 1858 he became the first person to take aerial photographs. This was done using the wet plate collodion process, and since the plates had to be prepared and developed while the balloon was aloft Nadar experienced problems caused by the chemical action on the plates of gas escaping from the balloon, eventually overcome by using a gas-proof cotton cover over the balloon basket. He also pioneered the use of artificial lighting in photography, working in the catacombs of Paris. He was the first person to photograph above ground with his balloons, as well as the first to photograph below ground, in the Parisian catacombs.
In 1863, Nadar commissioned the prominent balloonist Eugene Godard to construct an enormous balloon, 60 metres (196 ft) high and with a capacity of 6,000 m3 (210,000 cu ft), and named Le Géant ("The Giant"), thereby inspiring Jules Verne's Five Weeks in a Balloon. The "Géant" was badly damaged at the end of its second flight, leading Nadar to the conviction 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. |