Photographer’s Involvement
The Commune represented a public and shared event for Disdéri, Marville, and Nadar.  As Parisian residents, they all experienced first-hand the events of 1870-1871.  Interestingly, each photographer reacted uniquely to this revolutionary period.

Disdéri’s Souvenirs
Similar to his businessman’s priority pre-Commune, Disdéri’s character remained identical throughout the Commune; he made the most of the revolutionary events and turned a profit via photography. Disdéri capitalized on the public’s new interest in images of destructions:
The uprising of the Commune of Paris in 1871 was one of the few political events in the nineteenth century to have been photographically documented from beginning to end… After the rebellion was crushed by national troops, the ruins of prominent buildings torched by the Communards became a favorite subject.  A new market for macabre photographic souvenirs was established.
Disdéri went beyond documenting architectural damages, in fact, he captured the human-to-human destruction as well.  Disdéri photographed the dead.         
Disdéri’s dead photos- corpses lined up. (Image 8)  Used by officials/police to identify rebels. (przyblyzki)

Marville’s Adaptation
In keeping with his politically flexible persona, Marville just rolled with the punches.  During the height of conflict, he quit photographing for pay.  Since there was no official, or rather singular, government he had no photographic orders to fill. After the Commune, however, Marville began working for the new government in the late 1870s. Once on the payroll of the Third Republic, Marville documented visual consequences of the Commune as well as the continuation of urbanization projects.  He was back to photographing the physical workings of French politics.
In 1878, Marville exhibited a ‘before and after’ collection of his images of Paris.  The ‘before’ segment of this exhibit came from a collection of 425 photos originally commissioned by Haussmann in the early 1850s.  The ‘after’ portion, shot between 1876-77, consisted of photographs commissioned by the republican members of the Municipal Council of the City of Paris.   These images included projects that began under the Second Empire but were being completed under the Third Republic.  Some prominent areas of Paris included boulevard Saint-Germain, boulevard Haussmann, and avenue de l’Opéra.  (As well as the street furniture collection).
Discuss before and after shots: Hôtel de Ville (Image 9)
Wilson suggests that Marville’s before and after photographs helped to erase the memory of the Commune. “Marville in 1878 can be seen to convey, through the use of his ‘objective’ lens, the essence of that centrist ‘bourgeois republicanism’…”   Seemingly, Marville continues to produce photographic propaganda. 
In the 1870s, Marville appears to duplicate his pre-Commune behavior.  Once again, he was photographying for a strong-willed client that desired a specific end-result.  This time, however, he was visually supporting the positive changes within the city.  Marville was displaying a government product and no longer the need for such projects. In his mobilier urbain, or street furniture collection the emphasis was on the enormous improvements of public facilities, like gas lighting, kiosks and public toilets. (Image 10) These photos are similar because of the conscious technical choices of Marville.  He shot with shorter exposure times and showed more people on the streets.   There is a definite change in the overall mood of his post-Commune work.  A more positive atmosphere is clear.  This new mood implies the accomplishments and betterment within Paris, which reflect the Third Republic’s presence.

Nadar’s Activism
The primary significance of Nadar’s role during the Commune was his sacrifice of photographic work for his political beliefs.  Nadar’s commercial activity stopped with the 1870 Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune.  He no longer photographed, but rather physically participated.  Nadar became a Communard. 
He applied his aeronautic experience to help the Commune and became a military advisor on the use of balloons. “The Franco-Prussian War and the siege of Paris give Nadar a final opportunity for aeronautics.  He creates a military company of balloonists (B.N.F. Dép. Des Mss. Nouv. Acqu. Fr. 25007/185) and makes numerous ascensions for observation.  The beginning of aerial postal services.” Nadar was not hesitant in joining the Commune’s cause.  By the end of September 1870, Nadar had physically helped to establish the Aeronautic Postal service, or la Poste Aérienne, in the Montmartre neighborhood.
Because of his personal involvement in the Commune, Nadar has no photographic work during this two year time period.
Use image of the balloon being blow up. (Image 11)
While Nadar did not photograph the Commune, he did write about it in a book “Sous l’incendie,” published in 1882. Under the section titled Matin du 4, Nadar depicts the morning of September 4th, when the Empire fell.  People flooded into the center of Paris and converged on the Seine.  He describes the immense relief felt among himself and friends: “Pour le moment…nos bons Parisiens sont tout entiers à l’infinie volupté de sentir l’air libre dans leurs poitrines depuis si longtemps étouffées.”

Conclusions  (more to come)
-Disdéri photographed for profit whereas Nadar participated physically and on a personal level. And Marville adapted his photography to the will of the ruling government.