Interieur van de catacomben van Parijs c. 1861

This photograph of the Paris catacombs was made by Nadar sometime in the mid-19th century. The image shows a stone ossuary, likely photographed using the collodion process. This was a relatively new technology at the time, requiring the photographer to prepare, expose, and develop the images on glass plates all within a short timeframe. The photograph’s appearance is deeply influenced by the material realities of the catacombs themselves, and the labor required to create them. The catacombs were originally limestone quarries, later repurposed to house the remains of millions of Parisians. The stacked bones, somberly lit, speak to the vast scale of the city’s population, and the social systems required to manage it. Nadar’s photograph, then, is not just an artistic representation, but a document of urban infrastructure, labor, and the relationship between the living and the dead. It reminds us that the most seemingly rarefied images are often deeply embedded in material and social realities.