MAKE A MEME
View Large Image
| View Original: | Nadar,_View_in_the_Catacombs_-_Getty_Museum.jpg (3309x4132) | |||
| Download: | Original | Medium | Small | Thumb |
| Courtesy of: | commons.wikimedia.org | More Like This | ||
| Keywords: Nadar, View in the Catacombs - Getty Museum.jpg The Paris catacombs were former underground quarries that were refitted to house skeletons Nadar ventured into them to create an unprecedented series of photographs illuminated by flashlight He used a magnesium lamp visible in the lower right corner of the image Six or seven million skeletons were interred in the catacombs; in this photograph seemingly every one is accounted for Only sixteen carefully stacked protruding skulls on the wall are clearly distinguishable at left yet they are all that is needed to indicate what the blackened squares in the distance represent Around the time that Nadar made this series of a hundred photographs in the catacombs two of his beloved friends passed away The photographer may have been exploring his own mortality when he embarked upon this series but it was also a fashionable pursuit to descend into these macabre depths In mid-nineteenth century Paris there were four annual visiting days for the catacombs at which time they were filled with curious onlookers 1861 Albumen print Image 22 6 x 18 1 cm 8 7/8 x 7 1/8 in Mount 44 9 x 32 1 cm 17 11/16 x 12 5/8 in Institution Getty Museum object history exhibition history other versions 45982 credit line accession number 84 XM 436 481 PD-100 Photographs of the catacombs of Paris by Nadar 1861 in Paris 1861 photographs Photographs in the Getty Museum | ||||
