Nadar: Inventing Paris, from the depths to the sky

As part of the site's recent renovation, the Catacombs of Paris now offer a new visitor route complemented by a temporary exhibition program, highlighting the unique history of this site, famous worldwide but still relatively unknown to the French and Parisians.

Presented every autumn in the reception area or within the underground route, these exhibitions aim to explore different themes, periods, or landmark events through artistic, historical, or technical approaches, thus enriching the visitor experience.

New Perspectives

Held within the framework of the Bicentenary of Photography, this first exhibition pays tribute to the pioneering role of Félix Tournachon, known as Nadar (1820-1910). Between 1858 and 1868, taking Paris as a privileged terrain for his numerous underground and aerial experiments, Nadar profoundly revolutionized the use of photography by taking on immense technical challenges.

The photographs he took in the Catacombs, about twenty of which were acquired by Paris Musées in 2023, constitute an exceptional testament. The first underground images produced using electric light, a process invented by Nadar, they are also the first known images of the site.

As an introduction to the tour of the Catacombs, the exhibition presents a set of about fifteen reproductions of these photographs taken by the artist in the ossuary in 1862 and then in the sewers of Paris in 1865, contrasted with the first aerial views of Paris immortalized in 1868 from a balloon.

Due to the great fragility of the original prints and documents, the exhibition only presents reproductions. Complemented by archives (reproductions of patents, advertising posters, drawings, and caricatures), these images bear witness to Nadar's major role in shaping the image of the City of Light.

The Catacombs Revealed

Initially an author then a draftsman and caricaturist, Nadar went down in history as a great portrait photographer. Gifted with a curious temperament, he was interested in all the scientific and technical advances of his time. He filed several patents and multiplied his experiments.

In 1861, Nadar filed his patent for photography using electric light. Ernest Lamé-Fleury, the inspector of quarries in charge of the Catacombs, had the idea of inviting him to experiment with his invention in the depths of Paris. Nadar accepted the technical challenge in 1862 and spent three months taking dozens of images twenty meters underground under unprecedented conditions. The period was favorable: around 1860, significant transfers of bones took place in the ossuary due to Haussmann's work reshaping Paris. Nadar documented this work by photographing the new bone walls built by the quarrymen.

This was an important moment in the history of the Catacombs: when the phantasmagorical image of the site, broadcast by draftsmen and engravers who had sometimes never set foot there, gave way to the faithful and indisputable rendering of photographs. The images presented reveal, often at the edges of the frames, the complex equipment (cables, tripods, lamps, bottles of chemicals) and remind us of the material challenges such an enterprise implies.

He replicated this setup in the sewers of Paris in 1865, thus offering a unique look at the city: its entrails and its modern infrastructure.

The Conquest of the Sky

In parallel, Nadar considered combining photography and aerial navigation. It was in 1858 that he filed his patent application for "aerostatic photography." After multiple unsuccessful attempts, he captured the first aerial views of Paris known to date in 1868. He was thus the first to photograph Paris from the sky, paving the way for new uses and new aesthetics.

Nadar was also a remarkable communicator. The 19th century was that of the illustrated press, advertising, and spectacle, of which he mastered all the levers. He had a forty-five-meter-high balloon built, the Géant, whose successes and failures fueled newspapers and caricatures. He turned every flight into a media event.

By gathering and presenting these testimonies, the exhibition "Nadar: Inventing Paris, from the depths to the sky" allows a dive into the social, heritage, and urban history of a city then in profound transformation.

This exhibition has received the Bicentenary of Photography label from the Ministry of Culture.