An awful lithography offers a terribly inexact impression of the ossuary. The idea of taking photographs in that sought-after, esoteric place comes from Ernest Lamé-Fleury (1823-1903), Mining Engineer and Quarry Inspector, who appealed to Nadar in 1861: “Using the title The Catacombs, an amateur recently published a short study, of which I naturally procured a copy, in order to learn what was being said abut my dark domain. These photographic essays actually concerned current events: the sanitizing of Paris imposed by the imperial authorities after the terrible cholera epidemics.īones dug up from old cemeteries were transferred to inactive quarries that had been arranged to receive them: these became the famous “catacombs.” Open to the public four times a year, they became a trendy destination for sight-seers. Some one hundred photographs, first of the catacombs, in 1862, then of the sewers, in 1865, constitute the most spectacular application of his technique. 115-116.)įélix Nadar began experimenting with photography by artificial light in 1859 he applied for a patent for it in 1861. Péreire, Mirès, Halphen, etc., etc., not forgetting my friend and neighbor, Professor Trousseau.” (Nadar, Quand j’étais photographe (When I Was A Photographer), 1900, p. de La Landelle, Gustave Doré, Albéric Second, Henri Delaage, Branicki, the tycoons E.

Thus, during those evenings, I was able to photograph, among others, Niépce de Saint-Victor, G. Those impromptu visitors from all walks of life, including some well-known or even quite famous people, were always warmly welcomed, thereby furnishing us with a free supply of models who were more than happy to volunteer their time to a new experience. Like moths to a candle, many of the curious, whether friends or strangers, couldn’t keep themselves from climbing the stairs to find out what was going on. “As night fell each night, the continuity of that then-uncommon form of lighting attracted crowds on the boulevard. A Serrin regulator, activated by a 50-Bunsen-element battery was used. Sittings were organized in late 1860-early 1861 on the furnished terrace at the Boulevard des Capucines studio. The invention offered precise control over the toxic, overly-bright light from the first batteries. In April, 1859, he presented his earliest test shots in the salons of the circle of La Presse scientifique the same day that the engineer Victor Serrin (1829-1905) demonstrated his electrical regulator.

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