S8 Ep270: NADAR'S BALLOON AND THE BIRTH OF PHOTOGRAPHY Colleague Anika Burgess, Flashes of Brilliance. In 1863, the photographer Nadar undertook a perilous ascent in a giant balloon to fund experiments for heavier-than-air flight, illustrating the adventurous spiri

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Books, Society & Culture, News, Arts

4.5 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2026

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

NADAR'S BALLOON AND THE BIRTH OF PHOTOGRAPHY Colleague Anika Burgess, Flashes of Brilliance. In 1863, the photographer Nadar undertook a perilous ascent in a giant balloon to fund experiments for heavier-than-air flight, illustrating the adventurous spirit required of early photographers. This era began with Daguerre's 1839 introduction of the daguerreotype, a process involving highly dangerous chemicals like mercury and iodine to create unique, mirror-like images on copper plates. Pioneers risked their lives using explosive materials to capture reality with unprecedented clarity and permanence. NUMBER 1
1870 siege of the Paris Commune.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is CBS Eye on the World.
0:08.5	Here's John Batchelor.
0:10.4	It is October 1863.
0:13.9	The union is hard-pressed by the Confederacy.
0:18.0	In Europe, however, there is peace at hand, such peace that a man named
0:24.5	Nadar, that's an umnagar, climbs into a balloon, giant balloon, 196 feet tall, with his wife,
0:33.8	Ernestine and guests in a basket that is built for pleasure.
0:39.9	And they're having breakfast, coffee and croissant, sailing over France, and then there's trouble.
0:47.4	Why are they in the balloon? Who is Nadar?
0:50.3	I welcome Anika Burgess, the author of the new book, Flashes of Brilliance,
0:56.1	The Genius of Early Photography, and How It Transformed Arts, Science, and History,
1:02.0	and that balloon in October of 1863.
1:05.3	Anika, congratulations, a very good evening to you.
1:08.2	Thank you for this.
1:09.3	Thank you so much.
1:10.5	Who is Nadar? And
1:12.1	what is he trying to achieve by sailing over France and getting into trouble?
1:19.2	Nadar is such a wonderful figure in early photography. He was a photographer. He was also a
1:24.4	caricaturist who was a writer. He was this larger than life figure in Paris at this time.
1:29.5	And by 1863, he had already taken camera equipment down into the catacombs of Paris to photograph in the darkness using an arc lamp.
1:39.5	And but on this occasion, he, as you said, was up in the air in this absolutely enormous balloon.
1:45.9	Now, his idea had been to try to photograph from a balloon to take aerial pictures.
	...

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