A legendary book, imbued with the rogue personality of its author, finally appears in English, allowing us to wander with him through his memories of a key moment in our modernity. A vital contribution to our understanding of photography both then and now. -- Geoffrey Batchen, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Eloquently nostalgic, discreetly ironic about nostalgia, these pages from another time tell us all kinds of witty, often oblique tales of photography -- from the air, underground, of the dead and the living, in and out of history. Nadar was many other things as well as a photographer but once he had started he never stopped being one, even when he wasn't using a camera. He hasn't stopped now. The deftly translated words of this book offer pictures that prove it. -- Michael Wood, Princeton University
Felix Nadar (1820-1910) is one of the greatest figures in the
history of photography. Eduardo Cadava, a writer, translator, and
scholar, is the author of Words of Light- Theses on the Photography
of History, coeditor of The Itinerant Languages of Photography, and
Professor of English at Princeton University. Liana Theodoratou,
Clinical Professor of Hellenic Studies and Director of the A. S.
Onassis Program in Hellenic Studies at New York University, is a
scholar and writer and the translator of several works by
Althusser, Derrida, and Foucault into modern Greek.
Eduardo Cadava, a writer, translator, and scholar, is the author of
Words of Light- Theses on the Photography of History, coeditor of
The Itinerant Languages of Photography, and Professor of English at
Princeton University.
Liana Theodoratou, Clinical Professor of Hellenic Studies and
Director of the A. S. Onassis Program in Hellenic Studies at New
York University, is a scholar and writer and the translator of
several works by Althusser, Derrida, and Foucault into modern
Greek.
Nadar's book has finally been translated into English.... [M]any of
the vignettes in When I Was a Photographer are infused with his
rebellious zest.—The Wall Street Journal
This compact volume gives the sense of being present for the
invention of photography…. [Nadar] writes engagingly of
photographing a dead man and meeting a bee tamer, and we are
charmed.—San Francisco Chronicle
When I Was a Photographer brims with Nadar's wisdom on a multitude
of subjects and subtleties of creative work.—Brain Pickings
The book presents a fresh opportunity to consider a bizarre and
compelling character.... In the age of the selfie, Nadar reminds us
of the brave beginnings of a medium that changed the world.—Adam
Begley, The Guardian
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