A self-portrait by Nadar in the gondola of a balloon, c. 1863. This carte-de-visite was intended to promote Nadar's expensive ballooning ventures. He hoped that the images would attract more paying customers to witness the live balloon ascensions he staged. This one is of course posed in his studio, with a laundry hamper standing in for the balloon's basket and a painted backdrop of clouds. Nadar was the pseudonym of Gaspard-Felix Tournachon (1820-1910), a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, and balloonist. He took his first photographs in 1853 and in 1858 became the first person to take aerial photographs.