Félix Nadar: Celebrity Photographer of the 19th Century


It's not hard to come by good portrait photography these days. From the movie-like photographs of Annie Leibovitz's to the impressive close-ups of Platon to the somber images of Dan Winters, viewers are spoiled for choice when it comes to celebrity photographers. It was a different story some 200 years ago, when pioneering portrait photographer Félix Nadar took it upon himself to change the face of portrait photography with his unorthodox approach to the medium, effectively becoming the most famous celebrity photographer of the 19th century.


The name Gaspard-Félix Tournachon isn't very much known in photographic circles because he used the pseudonym Félix Nadar for his work. Later on in his career he became so successful as a photographer that he was simply known as the portraitist Nadar.

Nadar was also an avid balloonist, and it wasn't long before he combined his passion for photography and flying by attempting to take photos from his hot-air balloon. Indeed, Nadar is also famous for creating the first aerial photograph in 1858.


Aerial photography aside, why exactly was Nadar so famous in his day? And does his name still hold any relevance to modern portrait photography? To answer those questions, you'll have to understand the portrait photography industry of the 1800s. Back then, the photographic medium was still in its infancy, so the trend was largely dictated by the standards of 19th century portrait painting coupled with the limits of the early camera.

Even with these limitations, Nadar refused to follow the trend of having his work look the same as everybody else's. He experimented with different lenses and set-ups, being one of the first to go with close-ups instead of full-body shots. He also worked with artificial lights, something that wasn't so easy given the availability of portable electric lights at the time.


Towards the end of the 19th century, he became the go-to photographer for all of the celebrities of the time, from the stage and early film actress Sarah Bernhardt to the composers Claude Debussy and Franz Liszt to the engineer and architect Gustave Eiffel to science fiction writer Jules Verne, almost everyone who was someone in the 1800s eventually ended up sitting in front of his camera.

Celebrities went to Nadar not only because he made them look good, he also made them feel good. He had "the moral comprehension of his subject...which permitted the most familiar and favorable resemblance, the intimate one." Above all, he championed the photographic medium as an art form, refusing to bow down to purists that photography only served to advance science. For him, it was art, and it shows in his photographs.


There aren't a lot of websites dedicated to Félix Nadar and his photography, but the Wikimedia Commons has a nice collection of some of his works. The Metropolitan Museum of Art also has several images of Nadar's celebrity photographs of the 19th century, along with a description of each image. For hardcopies, try Nadar or Nadar/Warhol: Paris/New York: Photography and Fame.

Comments

  1. Some of them look totally badass. These pictures are amazing, especially in a time where there really isn't anyone saying "that would be a great shot" and what not. Experimenting with the medium, I think is the most important aspect when it comes to our media, whether movies, photos and video games.

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  2. Sorry but I'd not hears of him before! But he certainly knew how to take a photo, I like the chap in the 7th photo, he looks like quite an unsavoury kinds man! Wonder who he was???

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    1. Since you've waited patiently for over a decade now, I'll answer this one for you...lol. This guy's name is Eugène Pelletan. He was a well known French writer and politician in the mid-1800s, with this photo dating somewhere between 1855-1859. Full-name: Pierre Clément Eugène Pelletan.
      You'll find that the majority of people featured in Nadar's portrait photography were French, as his main studio was in Paris.

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  3. Good pictures and people, dynamic poses and great expressions, the colour is stark but improves the image even more.

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  4. I might take some styling cues from these guys, especially the hair.

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  5. Some of these have a bit of an awkward feel, you can tell if it was a newer experiment or if he'd gotten it down already. It's pretty special, especially considering when it was. Some of these are way better than I would've expected for the time period.

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  6. they could have sported better hair cuts imo

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  7. He didn't sign all of his portraits, I wonder why?

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  8. Good work. I like old photographies.

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  9. I've always liked the look of old images.

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  10. The guy in the 4th picture from the bottom looks like he could fit in todays world!

    Great post as usual, been missing them tbh!

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  11. Great post, the portraits are amazing, so classic. keep it coming.

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  12. funny, these people were important back in their time yet now....lost faces from the pages of history.

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  13. Those are incredible, considering how primitive and difficult the technology was at the time.

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  14. I like the third picture the most. There is this sense of beauty.

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