author
Félix Nadar
1820–1910
A restless, inventive figure of 19th-century France, he helped turn photography into an art of personality and presence. He is also remembered for daring balloon experiments and for making some of the earliest aerial photographs.
1 Audiobook
À terre & en l'air... Mémoires du Géant
by Félix Nadar
About the author
Before he became famous behind the camera, Nadar worked as a writer, journalist, and caricaturist in Paris. That wide-ranging creative life never really left him: it shaped the lively, curious spirit that runs through his photography and made him one of the most colorful cultural figures of his time.
He is best known for his striking portrait photographs of artists, writers, musicians, and other notable people of the 19th century. Rather than treating photography as a purely mechanical process, he used it to reveal character, and his portraits are still admired for their clarity, intimacy, and intelligence.
Nadar was also drawn to adventure and experiment. He became a passionate balloonist and is credited with making the first aerial photographs, showing the same mix of showmanship and innovation that defined his career. Born in Paris in 1820 and dying there in 1910, he left behind a body of work that helped define early modern photography.