Photomania

Emily Bickerton | London Review of Books | 22nd November 2018

Nadar was a flamboyant character in 1850’s Paris. Amidst his various antics he focused enough to become photography’s first great portraitist. This exulted reputation is based less on technical innovation than on the psychological dimension of his portraits. The philosopher Roland Barthes called Nadar’s portrait of his wife “one of the loveliest photographs in the world”.