NADAR élevant la Photographie à la hauteur de l'Art.

Trustman, Benjamin A., Trustman, Julia M. · 1862

Nadar flies in a hot air balloon to take some aerial photographs of Paris. In February 1856, Félix TOURNACHON, better known under the name of NADAR (1820-1910) flew over Paris in a hot air balloon, opening a new page in the history of photography. The original photograph was taken at a height of 520 meters at the Petit Clamart outside of Paris. In 1937, the lithographic stone of this print was shown in an exhibition of the Pennsylvania Museum of Art in Philadelphia. It was lent out by the Weyhe Gallery in New York (see page 53 of the exhibition catalogue). PHOTOGRAPHY. In 1824, the era of photography began in France. The pioneers in this field were Jean-Louis Mandé Daguerre and his colleague Nicéphore Niepce. But only with Nadar, photography became a more artistic means of expression. Due to the lengthy time of exposure in early DAGUERROTYPE, it was most important for the "victim" not to move, which made portrait photography extremely difficult. It was only after the development of more light sensitive objectives that portrait-photography improved. Nevertheless it was still necessary to immobilize the heads of the clients, sitting in a "photographic chair", by means of wooden pegs. NADAR, Félix, Tournachon, called (1820-1910) was a painter, photographer, journalist at the „La Revue Comique“, writer, and one of the first aeronauts. DAGUERRE, Louis Jacques Mandé (1787 – 1851), physicist and inventor. One of his best known inventions was the Camera Obscura, in which a scene was painted on a round canvas and animated with light effects. In 1829 he started a collaboration with Joseph Nicéphore Niepce, who died before they could come out with the result of their work. Daguerre presented their work under his name: Daguerreotype, a system of photography with copper plates and exposure in the Camera Obscura. The result was a very exact photograph, but it could not be reproduced.