‘Waiting Still:’ Baudelaire and the Temporality of the Photographic Portrait

This article examines a series of portraits of the poet Charles Baudelaire made by the photographer Nadar and taken during the 1850s and early 1860s. In particular, it focuses on the so-called ‘Godoy’ portrait now in the Musee d'Orsay. It is well known that Baudelaire expressed antipathy to photographic representation in his review of the Salon of 1859. However, Baudelaire's involvement in the portrait process and the content of a letter addressed to his mother offers evidence that, it is suggested, puts this received understanding into question. Baudelaire's interest in photography is read in the context of his poetry. Enlisting the writings of Walter Benjamin, it is argued that the temporality of photography is not only inflected in the poems themselves but is also understood as an allegory of the nature of modernity.