Exploring the footnotes, segues and marginalia of graduate research, this talk will explore the intersection between technology and photography in late nineteenth century France, focusing on a series of photographs taken by Nadar (Félix Tournachon) in 1863, featuring several model helicopters. Similar to speculative science fiction, the photographs anticipate a future in flight for the models, and for machines heavier than air. Part of a significant body of written and visual descriptions of the helicopters and other early aviation prototypes– including numerous references to Nadar and the helicopters in the novels of Jules Verne –the photographs form part of a larger project of scientific anticipation. This portion of the photographer’s practice highlights the primacy of his relationship to technological development, and the documentary, explorative and speculative role of photography within this practice. Nadar’s writings and images from this period represent part of a surge of early thinking on the relationship between photography, technological progress and temporality, themes that have continued to be at the centre of contemporary photographic theory and criticism.

Emily Doucet is a writer and researcher from Winnipeg, Canada with an MA in the History of Art from University College London and a BA Honours in the History of Art from the University of Winnipeg. She will be beginning her Doctoral Studies in the History of Art at the University of Toronto in September 2014. She has published on Canadian contemporary art and modernist architectural heritage, working with a variety of artist-run centers, cultural and heritage organizations including Plug In ICA, aceartinc and the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation.

Image credit:

Félix Nadar, Helicopter by Ponton D’Amécourt with a Double Horizzontal Movement of the Timepieces, Albumen silver print, 1863.