When I Was a Photographer

Nonfiction, Art & Architecture, Photography, Pictorials, History, Biography & Memoir
Cover of the book When I Was a Photographer by Félix Nadar, The MIT Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Félix Nadar ISBN: 9780262330725
Publisher: The MIT Press Publication: November 6, 2015
Imprint: The MIT Press Language: English
Author: Félix Nadar
ISBN: 9780262330725
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication: November 6, 2015
Imprint: The MIT Press
Language: English

The first complete English translation of Nadar's intelligent and witty memoir, a series of vignettes that capture his experiences in the early days of photography.

Celebrated nineteenth-century photographer—and writer, actor, caricaturist, inventor, and balloonist—Félix 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 Nadar's 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 j'étais 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 Balzac's terror of being photographed, the impact of a photograph on a celebrated murder case, and the difference between male and female clients. Nadar's memoir captures, as surely as his photographs, traces of a vanished era.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The first complete English translation of Nadar's intelligent and witty memoir, a series of vignettes that capture his experiences in the early days of photography.

Celebrated nineteenth-century photographer—and writer, actor, caricaturist, inventor, and balloonist—Félix 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 Nadar's 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 j'étais 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 Balzac's terror of being photographed, the impact of a photograph on a celebrated murder case, and the difference between male and female clients. Nadar's memoir captures, as surely as his photographs, traces of a vanished era.

More books from The MIT Press

Cover of the book William Kentridge by Félix Nadar
Cover of the book Crowdsourcing by Félix Nadar
Cover of the book Vision by Félix Nadar
Cover of the book An Economist in the Real World by Félix Nadar
Cover of the book Natural Resources as Capital by Félix Nadar
Cover of the book How Things Shape the Mind by Félix Nadar
Cover of the book Governing Complex Systems by Félix Nadar
Cover of the book Happiness by Félix Nadar
Cover of the book Built upon Love by Félix Nadar
Cover of the book Movies and the Moral Adventure of Life by Félix Nadar
Cover of the book Dynamics among Nations by Félix Nadar
Cover of the book All and Nothing by Félix Nadar
Cover of the book Ecuador's Environmental Revolutions by Félix Nadar
Cover of the book Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine by Félix Nadar
Cover of the book The Monumental Challenge of Preservation by Félix Nadar
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy