Inventing Nadar: a history of photographic firsts

Abstract

"Inventing Nadar describes the historical production of the nineteenth-century French photographer Félix Nadar's photographic "firsts"-including claims to the first aerial photograph, the first photographs by electric light, and the first photographs of the Parisian sewers and catacombs, among others. Cutting across a wide range of emergent technological forms in the nineteenth-century, these episodes represent both a compelling site of historical investigation and a useful starting point from which to consider the co- constitutive relationship between technologies and their representations. Individual chapters highlight a photographic first, suggesting that each is characteristic of a particular set of material and social entanglements which have characterized the development and historicization of modern photographic technology. Tracing Nadar's manifold social networks, the book dwells on the significance of acts of collaborative invention across artistic, scientific, literary, and journalistic communities and demonstrates the significance of these machinations for the history of photography and modern art more broadly"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

"Who do you think is the greatest photographer in the world?" -- Collecting the Ideas in the Air: The First Aerial Photograph -- Patent Priorities: The First Photograph by Electric Light -- Sound Reproductions: The First Photographic Interview -- Illuminating Infrastructures: The First Photographs Underwater and Underground -- When I was a Photographer, or the History of Photography in Photographic Firsts -- The History of Photography, as Told to Me by Nadar.