Felix Nadar, Charles Baudelaire (c. 1856) investigated
In his extensive study
Matthias Bickenbach
The author photo in the media revolution. Wilehlem Fink Verlag, Munich 2010, 430 pages with numerous illustrations rake, 49.90 Euro.
In 1842 there was not a well-known image by the writer Charles Baudelaire. The photography had just been invented and was still in its infancy. The picture, what you had in Paris of Baudelaire was found in his poetry, through rumors and stories.
his later friend, the photographer Felix Nadar, described many years later, the first encounter with the Bohemian legendenumwitterten: Suddenly our conversation faltered at the sight of a strange, ghostly form. (...) We saw a young man of medium height and good figure, except for a red-brown scarf all in black. His coat was cut perfectly, with a huge shawl collar, from which rose the head like a bouquet of its envelope (...) In his hand, the bright pink in one - I repeat: light pink - put the glove he wore the hat of the profusion of curly jet-black hair that fell on the shoulder, was expendable - a mane like a waterfall. So we should meet him, therefore, this eagerly anticipated figure of this most sublime attraction. "
Those present were not only about the appearance Baudelaire surprise as such. Rather, it was the difference in amazement to the reputation of the poet was: Because of its provocative texts were expected an unkempt, smelly and run-down man outside of society.
Matthias Bickenbach studied in his detailed study The author photo in the media revolution - anachrony the author of a standard photo as an example. He will represent the general view in question, the photograph as a medium would have had a revolution to follow. A revolution in particular the perception and contemplation of images. His postdoctoral thesis uses the author photo to prove the thesis that the universal adoption today is the new media revolution, respectively, in truth always an evolution.
The example Baudelaire is interesting and revealing, because the photograph used deep and incorporates into his work of art. To this work of art belonged to his poetry beyond his appearance and marketing. Baudelaire is indisputably one of the greatest innovators of the literature in the 19th Century. His rank is well above that of Balzac or Hugo. During his lifetime, however, was not financially very successful. So he took advantage of the emerging photography as an important means of self-presentation. He was by Felix Nadar same make whole series of portrait photographs of herself and even planned to take a picture as the frontispiece of all books. In theory, rejected Baudelaire photography down because it conveys a false impression of objectivity and imagery. But that's why he did it to exploit them.
Felix Nadar, Charles Baudelaire (1855)
Bickenbach interpreted the first still known photo Nadar: Baudelaire sits casually leaning back, his black long coat stresses the bohemian affiliations. But above all, the author emphasizes the hidden hands Baudelaire: "By Baudelaire hands were hidden, he not only deprives them of visibility. The hand of the poet is, after all even the medium of his manuscript and thus a symbolic Character that is well established in the tradition of images of scholars and written authority. The gesture of the hand in the pocket corresponding 'an attitude of the author in the Age of photographed, which connects the authorship with a visual withdrawal, the withdrawal of the writing hand. " Bickenbach interprets Baudelaire deliberately not present here in the previous pose of the great poets, but anti-bourgeois. The gesture of the hands in his pockets had "not only political and social as well as the customs of a valence literary distinction" .
Felix Nadar, Charles Baudelaire (1855)
Bickenbach study examines the role of the photographic portraits of literary authors and thus also their effect, after being used by the authors themselves and further implications, consequences, and often unexamined assumptions . Long before photography, there were plastic portraits of authors. These were used centuries ago for one purpose: You could make literally, a picture 'of the author, whom you read. Following the remarks Bickenbach device, the previous, unchecked and subconsciously accepted as established acceptance of the Revolution by the advent of photography and other new media to sway. Rather gives the interested reader a sense of the eternal evolutionary process. For contemporaries, the changes result always flowing, the speed no matter how fast. However, the greater the distance in time from a historical viewpoint, the stronger the retrospective perception as a 'revolution'.
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