André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri (; 28 March 1819 – 4 October 1889) was a French photographer who started his photographic career as a daguerreotypist but gained greater fame for patenting his version of the ''

carte de visite The ''carte de visite'' (, English: 'visiting card', abbr. 'CdV', pl. ''cartes de visite'') was a format of small photograph which was patented in Paris by photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri in 1854, although first used by Louis Dodero ...

,'' a small photographic image which was mounted on a card. Disdéri, a brilliant showman, made this system of mass-production portraiture world famous.

Early life

Disdéri began his working life in a number of occupations, while also studying art. He started as a daguerreotypist in Brest in 1848 or 1849 but in December 1852 or January 1853 he moved to

Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Located between the Med ...

. There he received assistance from Édouard Boyer and

Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent (or Joseph Laurent) (died 1900) was a French amateur astronomer and chemist who discovered the asteroid 51 Nemausa in 1858, for which he was a recipient of the Lalande Prize awarded by the French Academy o ...

with his photography-related chemistry experiments. After a year in Nîmes he moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, enabling easy access to people who would be the subjects of his ''cartes de visite.''

Disdéri and the ''carte de visite''

Photographs had previously served as calling cards,Wilder. but Disdéri's invention of the paper ''carte de visite'' (i.e. "visiting card") photograph second enabled the mass production of photographs. On 27 November 1854 he patented the system of printing ten photographs on a single sheet (although there is no evidence that a system printing more than eight actually materialized). This was the first patent ever for a ''carte de visite.'' Disdéri's's ''cartes de visite'' were 6×9 cm, about the size of conventional (nonphotographic) visiting cards of the time, and were made by a camera with four lenses and a sliding plate holder; a design inspired by the

stereoscopic Stereoscopy, also called stereoscopics or stereo imaging, is a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stereoscopic image is ...

cameras. The novelty quickly spread throughout the world. According to a German visitor, Disdéri's studio became "really the Temple of Photography – a place unique in its luxury and elegance. Daily he sells three to four thousand francs worth of portraits". The fact that these photos could be reproduced inexpensively and in great quantity brought about the decline of the daguerreotype and ushered in a ''carte de visite'' craze as they became enormously popular throughout Europe and the United States. So great was the publicity that all of Paris wanted portraits. The great French photographer

Nadar Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (; 5 April 1820 – 20 March 1910), known by the pseudonym Nadar () or Félix Nadar'','' was a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, balloon (aircraft), balloonist, and proponent of History of avi ...

, who was Disdéri's competitor, wrote about the new invention in his autobiographical "Quand j'étais photographe", "about the appearance of Disdéri and Carte de Visite. It spelled disaster. Either you had to succumb – that is to say, follow the trend – or resign."

Twin-lens reflex camera

Disdéri also invented the

twin-lens reflex camera A twin-lens reflex camera (TLR) is a type of camera with two objective Photographic lens, lenses of the same focal length. One of the lenses is the photographic objective or "taking lens" (the lens that takes the picture), while the other is use ...

Later years and death

In the aftermath of the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...

of 1871, Disdéri recorded an image of dead

Communards The Communards () were members and supporters of the short-lived 1871 Paris Commune formed in the wake of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. After the suppression of the Commune by the French Army in May 1871, 43,000 Communards we ...

. At the pinnacle of his career, Disdéri had been extremely wealthy and renowned; but like another photographer,

Mathew Brady Mathew B. Brady ( – January 15, 1896) was an American photographer. Known as one of the earliest and most famous photographers in American history, he is best known for his scenes of the American Civil War, Civil War. He studied under invento ...

, he is reported to have ended his life penniless. He died on 4 October 1889 in the Hôpital Ste. Anne in Paris, "an institution for indigents, alcoholics, and the mentally ill".Elizabeth Anne McCauley, ''A.A.E. Disdéri and the Carte de Visite Portrait Photograph'', Yale University Press, 1985. He was a victim of his own invention. The system which he invented and popularized was so easy to imitate that photographers all over the world took advantage of it.

Gallery

Image:1862 circa, André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, Les Jambes de l'opera, Mosaïque, Breveté s.d.g.d., Album of French Actors, Actresses, and Dancers, Getty Images.jpg, "Les Jambes de l'opera, Mosaïque Breveté s.d.g.d.", .

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, Getty Center. Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury by Disderi.JPG, ''Le peintre Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury'', années 1860 Disderi, Adolphe Eugène (1810-1890) - Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901).jpg, ''Portrait de

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi, his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma ...

'', au format carte-de-visite.

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...

. André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri (French - Napoléon III et Eugénie - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Emperor

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

et Empress Eugénie'' (),

, Getty Center.

References

Sources

*McCauley, Elizabeth Anne. "Carte de visite." ''Oxford Companion to the Photograph,'' ed. Robin Lenman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. . *Wilder, Kelley E. "Disdéri, André Adolphe-Eugène." ''Oxford Companion to the Photograph,'' ed. Robin Lenman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. .

External links

npg.org

getty.eduEncyclopædia Britannica, Andre-Adolphe-Eugene Disdéri
Accessed 28 November 2007.
Works by Disdéri
Collection Paul Frecker, London. {{DEFAULTSORT:Disderi, Andre Adolphe-Eugene 19th-century French inventors Pioneers of photography 1819 births 1889 deaths French portrait photographers 19th-century French photographers 19th-century French scientists