Nadar

Happy Birthday Nadar!! This French photographer, illustrator and balloonist was born in 1820. Nadar is a pseudonym for Gaspard-Félix Tournachon. He was the first to do aerial photography. He began as a caracturist, then moved into photography, using the catacombs as his dark room. He built his own balloon around 1863, using it to pioneer aerial photography. He is credited as the one to open his studio for the first Impressionist exhibit in 1874. The photo I have selected to show is of the Catacombs in 1861.