Nadar, the first of photographers

There are people who know how to see, and others who don't even know how to look, said Félix Tournachon — known as Nadar — the 19th- and 20th-century French photographer.

A 53-minute documentary

Arte is currently broadcasting the excellent documentary by Michèle Dominici, made in 2017:

Rooted in the Paris of the second half of the 19th century, a fascinating portrait of Félix Tournachon — known as Nadar — pioneer and master of the photographic art. Every personality of note in the capital paraded before his lens: George Sand, Victor Hugo, Baudelaire, Sarah Bernhardt, Gérard de Nerval, Jules Verne.



"There are people who know how to see, and others who don't even know how to look," he claimed. After scraping a living selling articles and caricatures to the gazettes, Félix Tournachon — known as Nadar — threw himself in 1854 into the fledgling adventure of photography. Thanks to a loan from a friend, he bought Louis Daguerre's equipment and opened his first studio on Rue Saint-Lazare. Between bohemian artistic Paris and the Paris of Haussmann's great works, every personality of note in the capital would parade before his lens: George Sand, Victor Hugo, Baudelaire, Sarah Bernhardt, Gérard de Nerval, Jules Verne… Focused on the Parisian years of the pioneer of the photographic art, the elegant portrait Michèle Dominici devotes to him brings back — through a superb selection of archives held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (photographs, drawings, newspapers), graphic effects and animation — the effervescence of a world ready to enter, in the wake of this visionary, into modernity.

Nadar, le premier des photographes
Documentary by Michèle Dominici (France, 2017, 53 min)

https://youtu.be/Ld3Gm663yrw

A good chance to discover or rediscover Nadar's portraits and images of the catacombs.