Félix Nadar is a legend in his native France. A tall, exuberant red-haired dynamo with a fascination for fame, he came to know everyone who was anyone in his career as a journalist and caricaturist. Instinctively understanding the emerging interest in celebrity – and the role photography could play in it – he created psychologically complex portraits of the leading artists, writers and actors of mid-19th-Century Paris which managed to turn the nascent medium into an artform.

More like this:

- Eye-opening Soviet photos

- Uncovering the colours of history

- Striking photos of human scars on Earth

His talent for self-promotion and daring ballooning exploits ensured he was as well-known as his clients. A fact he emphasised by having his name writ large in red glass tubing – the letters 10ft (3m) high and glowing neon-bright at night – across the front of his sumptuous Parisian photography studio.

“Part of what allowed him to recognise celebrity culture in its nascent form was that he … loved famous people and wanted to be one himself,” explains Nadar’s biographer Adam Begley. “He was a narcissist, but a charming one.”