Nadar

With Niépce and Daguerre, Nadar represents the third element of the trio the public at large considers the inventors of photography. This biography shows the vitality Félix Tournachon (1820-1910) showed in this field, in partnership or in conflict with his brother Adrien, and the strike of genius that was the invention of a well-sounding pseudonym easy to remember (first conceived «in order not to commit by my name all the literary crimes I have meditated»). And yet this only represents a part of the work since Nadar has many other interests, by need (he first made a living by drawing caricatures) or by passion (he was one of the pioneers in flying). He drew the portraits of Hugo, Baudelaire, Courbet and Berlioz, was a smart businessman (with his succesful workshop on boulevard des Capucines), and he was able to be a master of utopia by deciding to leave on foot to defend the Polish revolution…

• Nadar, par Stéphanie de Saint Marc, Gallimard, 2010, 25,50 €