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The First Celebrity Photographer

I am going to begin writing some blogs on individuals we plan to feature in the seventh and last volume of the series on Paris. Once we publish the two volumes of Where Did They Put the Gestapo Headquarters? A Walking Tour of Nazi Occupied Paris (1940-1944) later this year, we will begin Where Did They Bury Jim Morrison, the Lizard King?.  It is a walking tour of curious Paris cemeteries. While there are many books on Paris cemeteries (Père Lachaise in particular), they all seem to have one thing in common: they highlight or take you to the same famous occupants (e.g., Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and yes, even Jim Morrison). In other words, the authors don’t seem to differentiate their books. So, I decided our book will be different. We will introduce you to people you’ve likely never heard about. These are people with very interesting accomplishments and life stories but like much of history today, they are now forgotten.

Self-portrait of Félix Nadar. Photo by Félix Nadar (c. 1860). Bibliotheque nationales, Paris, France. PD-100+. Wikimedia Commons.
Self-portrait of Félix Nadar. Photo by Félix Nadar (c. 1860). Bibliotheque nationales, Paris, France. PD-100+. Wikimedia Commons.

Our subject today was a narcissist, self-confident, and self-promoting artist who led an extremely interesting and exciting life. Packed into his ninety-years, Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (1820-1910) hosted the first impressionist art show, took the world’s first aerial photograph (and first underwater photo), embarked on daring balloon rides, built a huge glowing (red gas) sign across the front of his Parisian studio, co-founded a luxury literary journal at the age of nineteen (he persuaded Alexandre Dumas and Honoré de Balzac to contribute), wrote literary articles, began the first airmail service, and became a sought after illustrator/caricaturist. However, his international fame both then and now is based on the legacy of being the world’s first celebrity photographer.

Did You Know?

Did you know that King James VI of Scotland (as well as being James I of England) was the most prolific witch-hunting monarch in history? He even wrote a book, Daemonologie, to convince people that witches were real and to vigorously pursue their persecution. He claimed a witch’s crime to be “high treason against God.” Between 1450 and 1750, more than 100,000 people (mostly women) were tried as witches with about half of them were put to death. Scotland arrested and tried around 4,000 suspected witches. King James personally sat in on many of the “interrogations” where the women would ultimately confess under torture. After he called Agnes Sampson a liar during an interrogation session, she went up to him and whispered in his ear exactly what he had discussed with the queen while in bed the prior evening. Up to that point, the king had not been convinced of her guilt but being that she was correct, he pronounced her guilty. As to Agnes’s fate, she was burned at the stake.

Let’s Meet Nadar

Félix Tournachon and his younger brother, Adrien (1825-1903), were born in Paris where their father, Victor Tournachon, was a printer and bookseller. Félix studied medicine but after his father died, Félix quit and joined the bohemian crowd. However, he had developed a love for reading and his favorite authors were Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas. His first jobs were as a journalist and caricaturist. Félix was given his nickname, “Nadar”, by a friend in 1839 and he immediately began using it as his pen name for the articles he wrote for newspapers and magazines. Nadar married Ernestine (1836-1909) in 1854 and they had one son, Paul (1856-1939). Read More The First Celebrity Photographer

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Totalitarianism, Fascism, or Authoritarianism?

This blog is going to be relatively short. It’s not because I ran out of time, but because I’m not an intellectual where I can go on and on to try and make you think I’m smart. What this little exercise did for me is confirm that I made a great choice about not taking philosophy classes in college.

But I’m going to take a stab at this because I think it’s important we understand the difference between various radical political ideas which even today, pop up in the media (including social), our discussions, and how we view the world and its leaders. Please keep in mind, these are political and not economic systems which frequently creep into our “discussions.”

Did You Know?

Did you know or even remember my blog post from 29 September 2018? Its title was Paris Therapy Pets. If you remember it, great but if not, you might want to click here and read it. Why? Because I have an update. France Magazine  (December 2018; Issue 243) reports that another animal rights group is setting out to protect the Parisian rats. Paris Animaux Zoopolis is plastering Métro walls with signs imploring people to “stop the massacre of rats.” Naturally, they use pictures of cute rats (unlike the images I used in my blog). I’m sure these folks are excited about the upcoming 2020 Chinese New Year. It will be the “Year of the Rat.”

I have run into so many authors who use these terms almost interchangeably that I decided to try and distinguish them from one another ⏤ in other words, I was confused. I find that in much of today’s traditional media and social media that people tend to use these terms on a “fast and loose” basis depending on their political slant (both right and left). Trust me, sometimes it is difficult to differentiate (at least for me). One thing I must point out is that the intellectuals who spend entire days, months, years, and even careers dissecting these issues, often are at odds with one another. There are the generational issues, the revisionist issues, and the philosophical issues which influence one’s take on how the terms are differentiated and applied to certain countries. I thought the best place to begin would be with the facts and then you can make up your own mind. We’ll start and end with the Merriam-Webster definitions. Read More Totalitarianism, Fascism, or Authoritarianism?