Nadar

Nadar, born Gaspard-Felix Tournachon, entered photography around 1853 after careers in journalism and caricature had already connected him to the leading figures of French culture^*1. His portraits rejected elaborate backdrops and props in favor of a plain gray ground and natural light, because he believed decoration hid the sitter's real character. Portraits of figures such as Victor Hugo, Sarah Bernhardt, Baudelaire, and Berlioz made that approach famous^*2. He also pushed photography technically, making one of the earliest aerial photographs from a balloon in 1858 and using electric light in the Paris catacombs in 1861. When he lent his studio for the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, he stood at a key intersection where photography was changing portrait culture and modern painting was emerging beside it^*1.