Emily Doucet, "Inventing Nadar: A History of Photographic Firsts" (Duke UP, 2026)

Emily Doucette's groundbreaking book, *Inventing Nadar: A History of Photographic Firsts*, dismantles the myth of photographic 'firsts' not by debunking them, but by revealing how they are collectively manufactured over decades through patents, exhibitions, media events, and archival curation. Rather than a biography of the 19th-century French photographer Félix Nadar, the book uses him as a lens to expose how the idea of a 'first' functions as a media event—constructed through performance, legal documentation, and strategic storytelling. Doucette argues that the photograph itself is never self-evident; it requires annotation, context, and institutional validation to become 'proof.' From the first aerial photo to the first electric-light portrait, each 'first' emerges not from a single moment of technical triumph, but from a complex interplay of ambition, business strategy, and cultural narrative. The book challenges historians to stop asking 'who was first?' and instead investigate how the claim to priority is made, who benefits from it, and what stories it enables—or silences. This reframing turns photography into a reflexive historical actor, not just a record of the past, but a participant in its construction.