Nadar and the Carte-de-visite

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Dare-devil Bohemian Non-conformist Inventor Entrepreneur

•C a r i c a t u r i s t •B a l l o o n i s t •J o u r n a l i s t

Revolving self portrait by Nadar

Pseudonyms popular in this period Studio emblazoned with his logo

• They added “dar” to a syllable • Tournachon became “Tournadar” later contracted down to ...

Nadar’s Shop front on street level

He rented his studios • Manet • Renoir • Degas • Cezanne • Sisley • Pissarro

• Had Distaste for Authority • Had a keen eye between appearance + character

• Concentrated on Cultural figures, writers, painters + musicians

•Hand of the Banker D. •printed in one hour with electric lighting •testifies to Nadar's attempts make to prints with electric lighting

Sarah Bernhardt • • • •

Portrait Photographer Eminent sitters Few photographs of women Mostly 3/4 turn, bust or half length • Solid backgrounds • Dramatic illumination.

• Used reflectors and artificial lamps •Won several awards for technical innovations •Draped a studio cloak over the shoulders to concentrate on the face

Artificially lit sewers and catacombs of Paris.

•Few photographs of women •Quoted by Nadar •“the images are too true to Nature to please the sitters, even the most beautiful”.

Gustave Eiffel

Charles Baudelaire

Boulanger – French General

Music by Nadar’s muse French composer Charles Gounod

Aerial photography • Arc de Triomphe • Le Géant – The Giant

The flying darkroom • Aerial views for cartography

+ military intelligence • Four meters high • Circumference 100 metres • Four beds, toilet, darkroom + lithograph press “It was warm inside our collodion plates didn’t mind, submerged in their cool baths.”

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Carrier pigeons Micro photography Showmanship Cartography from balloon

•Le Boulevard in 1862 - Caption •"Elevating photography to the condition of art”

Said of himself • He “was of superficial intelligence • Touched on too many subjects to have allowed time to explore any in depth • A dare-devil, always on the lookout for currents to swim against • oblivious of public opinion • irreconcilably opposed to any sign of law and order • A jack-of-all-trades • Smiles out of the corner of his mouth and snarls with the other • Coarse enough to call things by their real names, and people too • never one to miss the chance to talk of rope in the house of a hanged man”

Dallmeyer camera used by Nadar •Sliding box camera made for the wet plate collodion process •The camera consists of two wood boxes, one sliding within the other

Dallmeyer camera back view

•Nadar invented a horizontal shutter for the camera, + concealed the camera under a black curtain

The Balloon Crashes!

•Albeit ruined but instead……..

•He promoted the balloon as a •Symbol of Liberty •Evoking visions of joy and freedom

The book “Information for the People” •

“Photography derived from two Greek words

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‘Writing or Drawing by Light’

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Almost all substances are more or less affected by light, but ...

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The salts of chromium, have formed the basis of photography.”

Published - Robert Chambers

Thomas Annan 1st illustrated work to deal with social life at the time New laws for Sanitary Conditions

The Public Disinfectors

Zoopraxiscope Projector •The first movie projector •Projected images from rotating glass disks in rapid succession •To give the impression of motion

Zoopraxiscope

• The zoopraxiscope is an early device for displaying motion pictures.

• Created by Eadweard Muybridge in 1879 • Considered the first movie projector.

• The zoopraxiscope projected images from rotating glass disks

Created by Eadweard Muybridge in 1879 •The stop-motion images painted onto the glass as silhouettes.

1861 - 1st Colour Photograph •James Clerk Maxwell – Physicist • Famous tartan ribbon photo •First permanent colour photograph •Three black and white photographs •Taken through red, green, blue filters •First colour separation

Reproducing Photos in 1860-1885 Woodbury Process • photomechanical process • continuous tone images in slight relief.

• A gelatin film is exposed under a photographic negative • hardens in proportion to the amount of light • developed in hot water and dried

Intaglio Plate • only method which produces true middle values • pressed into a sheet of lead making an intaglio plate.

• A mould filled with pigmented gelatin, then pressed onto • a paper support

Shah of Persia Carte de Visite WoodburytypePrint from Felix Nadar Paris

PREPARATION OF POSITIVE PAPER Preparation of the Albumen • Break the eggs into a graduated measure • Add soluble chloride • Add water • Beaten to froth • Float the paper

Use this apparatus

Carte-De-Visite • Albumen print • produced using the Woodbury method • could fit into small envelopes • only mechanical printing method ever invented to produce true middle values

• Traded among friends and visitors

Hand Painted Albumen Flower Seller Japan – 1870

Hand painted Albumen Cards

Photographic Identification Pass •Adapted from carte-de-visite portrait •1878 photographic identification passes •Prevented passes from being lent or sold • Embossed stamp on card from Commissioner General.

Civil War Era 1861-1864 • Civil War Ladies • made with the Woodbury process • Albumen prints