Celebrated nineteenth-century photographer -- and writer; actor; caricaturist; inventor; and balloonist -- Feacute;lix Nadar published this memoir of his photographic life in 1900 at the age of eighty. Composed as a series of vignettes (we might view them as a series of "written photographs"); this intelligent and witty book offers stories of Nadars experiences in the early years of photography; memorable character sketches; and meditations on history. It is a classic work; cited by writers from Walter Benjamin to Rosalind Krauss. This is its first and only complete English translation.In When I Was a Photographer (Quand jeacute;tais photographe); Nadar tells us about his descent into the sewers and catacombs of Paris; where he experimented with the use of artificial lighting; and his ascent into the skies over Paris in a hot air balloon; from which he took the first aerial photographs. He recounts his "postal photography" during the 1870-1871 Siege of Paris -- an amazing scheme involving micrographic images and carrier pigeons. He describes technical innovations and important figures in photography; and offers a thoughtful consideration of society and culture; but he also writes entertainingly about such matters as Balzacs terror of being photographed; the impact of a photograph on a celebrated murder case; and the difference between male and female clients. Nadars memoir captures; as surely as his photographs; traces of a vanished era.
#2875055 in eBooks 2015-12-22 2015-12-22File Name: B019P2PNCI
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