In addition to being a portrait painter of the most famous people, not only from France, Nadar was also the inventor of aerial photography, and of underground photography, as well as responsible for many patents related to the photographic technique. In these memoirs published in 1899, Nadar reviews, by way of vignettes, with a very entertaining style, different aspects of his professional life: his beginnings in the profession, his first balloon trips, his experiences in the catacombs and sewers of Paris, the differences in behavior between clients and clients, his avant-garde work during the siege of Paris by German troops in 1870, some tricks of his trade, the technical developments in photography, his relationship with his fellow photographers, inventors and artists.