Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (French: [ɡaspaʁ feliks tuʁnaʃɔ̃]; 5 April 1820 – 20 March 1910 [1]), known by the pseudonym Nadar (French: [nadaʁ]) or Félix Nadar, was a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist and balloonist who was a proponent of heavier-than-air flight.
Nadar was a French writer, caricaturist, and photographer who is remembered primarily for his photographic portraits.
Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (6 April 1820 – 20 March 1910), known by the pseudonym Nadar, was a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, balloonist, and proponent of heavier-than-air flight. In 1858 he became the first person to take aerial photographs.
In his Paris studio, Nadar transformed portrait photography from a mechanical novelty into a psychological art. Rejecting painted backdrops, theatrical props, and stiff academic poses, he used controlled natural light and uncluttered settings to focus attention on the face itself.
He took his first photographs in 1853 and pioneered the use of artificial lighting in photography, working in the catacombs of Paris. Around 1863, Nadar built a huge (6000 m³) balloon named Le Géant ("The Giant"), thereby inspiring Jules Verne's Five Weeks in a Balloon.
Photographs of the Famous by Felix Nadar - The Public Domain Review
Nadar was a flamboyant personality and a man of infatigable spirit. A writer, caricaturist, inventor and adventurer, yet still best known perhaps as a celebrity portrait photographer, he placed himself at the very epicenter of nineteenth century French modernism.
Nadar had a remarkable capacity to elicit his sitter's most natural qualities and to create, even more than a likeness, a true portrait of character. Nadar's legendary name has been attached not only to his original photographs but to reprints, copies, and a great deal of studio work.