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PHOTOGRAPHER · 1820–1910 · FRANCE

Nadar

Plain-backdrop studio portraits that let a face carry the whole picture.

Born
1820
Died
1910
Country
France
Field
Photographer
Nadar
Portrait: Nadar, Public domain

KNOWN FOR

  1. 1864Sarah Bernhardt
  2. 1855Charles Baudelaire
  3. 1885Victor Hugo on his death-bed

WHY THEY MATTER

Pioneer of portrait and aerial photography; his portraits are held in many major national photographic collections, and his studio hosted the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874.

THE LIFE

Born Gaspard-Felix Tournachon, Nadar worked as a caricaturist and journalist before turning his Paris studio into a meeting place for the writers, actors and painters of his day. He photographed Baudelaire, Sarah Bernhardt, Hugo and Delacroix among many others. In 1858 he made the first aerial photographs from a balloon, and in 1874 he lent his studio to the painters who staged the first Impressionist show.

Source: Wikipedia

Also born in Before 1850

Mathew Brady

1822–1896 · United States · Photographer

Mathew Brady

Studio portraiture and organised battlefield coverage on an industrial scale.

Abraham Lincoln (Cooper Union portrait), 1860Source: Wikipedia

Carleton Watkins

1829–1916 · United States · Photographer

Carleton Watkins

Mammoth-plate landscapes of the American West, vast and precise.

Yosemite (mammoth-plate series), 1861Source: Wikipedia