Introduction

From 1850-1870, Napoléon III’s regime brought about significant changes for France, both physical and mental. Invented in 1839, photography became a debated ‘art form.’  Three prominent nineteenth-century French photographers -- A.A.E Disdéri, Charles Marville, and Félix Nadar -- contributed to the development of this great art by expanding the theory behind the medium.  In addition, they used photography as a means to exploit their own personal and political perspectives.  Most notably, these three men photographed with a unique political mindset that not only documents but adds critical nuance to Napoleon III’s reign.  Furthermore, the emperor’s fall from power and the events surrounding the Commune of Paris in 1870 provided a unique opportunity for each photographer to further exercise his political perspective. Historian Alain Faure’s statement ‘The Commune was born during the Empire,’ serves as a useful analogy to these photographers for whom photography, as an interpretive, communal and political art, was also ‘born’ during Napoleon’s regime (qtd in Shafer 26).
The groundbreaking photographs of Disdéri, Marville and Nadar were inspired by the transformative events of the Second Empire.  Their work raises questions about the relationship between art and politics.  Photography’s invention was only a decade old when the Second Empire began, and for many artists the opportunities seemed endless.  As well known photographers, Disdéri, Marville and Nadar become symbols of photography and politics. They signify a new artistic quest to use the medium as a means of expressing a heightened political awareness, or consciousness. 
A brief overview of the Second Empire and the events leading up to the Commune of 1870 will help situate these three distinct artists and their very different journeys toward what I might describe as an awakening of consciousness through photography.

Age of Inventions

            The 19th century was a time of immense change throughout France and Europe.  In France, the political topography continuously fluctuated.  Napoleon Bonaparte’s eleven-year reign over France ended with his second exile to Elba in 1815.  The Bourbon Monarchy attempted to fill the Emperor’s place, but was replaced in 1830 by the July Monarchy.  Charles X ruled as a constitutional monarch until 1848 when the Second Republic was established.  This Republic lasted only a few years until power was transferred into the hands of Napoleon’s nephew, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte.
The Second Industrial Revolution was spreading technological advancement across Europe and inventions appeared in every corner of society.  The first railway locomotive was invented in 1829 and soon an intricate network of rails was built across the continent.  The first electric motor appeared in 1834, followed shortly by the Samuel Morse’s telegraph in 1835.  Medicine benefited from the arrival of the stethoscope in 1819 and ether used as anesthesia in 1846.  Photography made its scientific debut in 1839.  The world seemed to be making progress in leaps and bounds.  But this era of inventive progress did not physically affect the city of Paris.
The city of Paris exhibited many unsettling qualities inherited from the previous decades.  Vertical growth within the city transformed Paris into a space of incredible density.  Its outdated medieval structure housed a booming population and created more problems than solutions.  Primary frustrations within the city included congestion and sanitation.  Cholera epidemics devastated the city through the early 1880s, most notably in 1830 and 1848.   By the mid 1800s, Paris’ population reached one million and the majority of these city dwellers lived within the ancient boundaries of the city. 
The conditions of city living left much to be desired.  In 1848, the average Parisian worker earned between 400-800 francs per year (McCauley Industrial 5).  These workers were very financially limited.  For example, they would never dreamed of purchasing and posing for a portrait.  Buying such a luxury good would have meant sacrificing possibly one-fourth of their annual income for a single portrait.  These price restrictions left photography to the more wealthy members of French society.